TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Monday (Oct. 17) announced the first cases of the Omicron variants BQ.1.1 and XBB, while four BF.7 infections have also been confirmed.

At Monday's press briefing, Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC's medical response division announced that 40 out of 41 local cases sequenced last week had the Omicron subvariant BA.5. Lo said 21 were in northern Taiwan, six in central Taiwan, and 12 in southern Taiwan.

As for 55 imported cases sequenced from last week, 76% were infected with BA.5, 10% had BA.2.75, 7% had BA.2, 5% had BA.4.6, and 2% had BF.7, while the first cases of BQ.1.1 and XBB were reported this week.

One BF.7 case came from the U.S. Six BA.2.75 cases came from Mauritius (two), Vietnam (two), Papua New Guinea (one), and Thailand (one).

Lo said that BF.7 is the third-generation subvariant of BA.5 and some experts believe that, compared with BA.4 or BA.5, BF.7 is more infectious and spreads faster. He said that has mainly been detected in China and Europe, and Taiwan has detected four cases thus far.

The latest BF.7 case, a female in her 20s, entered Taiwan on Oct. 2. She had symptoms and underwent a PCR saliva test which came back positive. Of the four BF.7 cases, two came from the U.S., one from France, and one from the Netherlands between Aug. 5 and Oct. 2.

In addition, two cases of BQ.1.1, another offshoot of BA.5 mainly found in Europe and the U.S., arrived in Taiwan from Germany and the Netherlands on Sept. 26 and 27, respectively. One case of XBB, a hybrid of two strains of BA.2 mainly found in Southeast Asia and accounting for half of cases in Singapore, was detected in a passenger who arrived from Hong Kong on Sept. 23.