Insacog, the pan-India network of laboratories set up to monitor genomic variations of the coronavirus, will hold a meeting on Friday amid an upsurge in Covid-19 infection in the country.

India on Thursday reported 5,335 fresh Covid-19 cases, the highest single day rise since September 23, 2022, and a jump of nearly 1,000 cases from Wednesday’s tally.

According to data by the Union health ministry, the number active cases in the country went up by 2,496 on Thursday.

XXB.1.16, a sub-lineage of Omicron, is accounting for about 60% of the total cases, a senior government official told ET.

This indicates a significant rise in XXB.1.16 infection in the last 10 days.

As per Indian Sars-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (Insacog) bulletin of March 27, 610 cases of XBB.1.16 variant had been detected across 11 states and union territories by then.

The XBB 1.16 variant was first found in January when two samples tested positive for the variant. “In the meeting on Friday, we will review how the sub-lineages are behaving, specially XBB.1.16 and whether it is leading to any clustering, etc,” said a person who is part of Insacog. He said all the cases are breakthrough infections, which means that the sub-variant is infecting irrespective of the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses.