The extremely transmissible Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – the most typical type of which is called BA.1 – now accounts for practically the entire coronavirus infections globally, though dramatic surges in COVID instances have already peaked in some international locations.
Scientists at the moment are monitoring an increase in instances attributable to a detailed cousin referred to as BA.2, which is beginning to outcompete BA.1 in components of Europe and Asia. The next is what we all know thus far concerning the new subvariant:
“STEALTH” SUBVARIANT
Globally, BA.1 accounted for 98.8% of sequenced instances submitted to the general public virus monitoring database GISAID as of Jan. 25. However a number of international locations are reporting latest will increase within the subvariant referred to as BA.2, based on the World Well being Group.
Along with BA.1 and BA.2, the WHO lists two different subvariants beneath the Omicron umbrella: BA.1.1.529 and BA.3. All are intently associated genetically, however every options mutations that would alter how they behave.
Trevor Bedford, a computational virologist at Fred Hutchinson Most cancers Heart who has been monitoring the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, wrote on Twitter on Friday that BA.2 represents roughly 82% of instances in Denmark, 9% within the UK and eight% in the US, primarily based on his evaluation of sequencing knowledge from the GISAID database and case counts from the Our World in Knowledge challenge on the College of Oxford.
The BA.1 model of Omicron has been considerably simpler to trace than prior variants. That’s as a result of BA.1 is lacking one among three goal genes utilized in a standard PCR take a look at. Circumstances exhibiting this sample had been assumed by default to be attributable to BA.1.
BA.2, typically referred to as a “stealth” subvariant, doesn’t have the identical lacking goal gene. As a substitute, scientists are monitoring it the identical approach they’ve prior variants, together with Delta, by monitoring the variety of virus genomes submitted to public databases resembling GISAID.
As with different variants, an an infection with BA.2 will be detected by coronavirus house exams kits, although they can’t point out which variant is accountable, consultants mentioned.
MORE TRANSMISSIBLE?
Some early studies point out that BA.2 could also be much more infectious than the already extraordinarily contagious BA.1, however there isn’t any proof thus far that it’s extra prone to evade vaccine safety.
Danish well being officers estimate that BA.2 could also be 1.5 instances extra transmissible than BA.1, primarily based on preliminary knowledge, although it possible doesn’t trigger extra extreme illness.
In England, a preliminary evaluation of contact tracing from Dec. 27, 2021, by means of Jan. 11, 2022, by the UK Well being Safety Company (HSA) means that family transmission is greater amongst contacts of individuals contaminated with BA.2 (13.4%) in contrast with different Omicron instances (10.3%).
The HSA discovered no proof of a distinction in vaccine effectiveness, based on the Jan. 28 report.
A important query is whether or not individuals who had been contaminated within the BA.1 wave can be shielded from BA.2, mentioned Dr. Egon Ozer, an infectious illness professional at Northwestern College Feinberg Faculty of Drugs in Chicago.
That has been a priority in Denmark, the place some locations that noticed excessive case counts of BA.1 infections had been reporting rising instances of BA.2, Ozer mentioned.
If prior BA.1 an infection doesn’t defend in opposition to BA.2, “this might be form of a two-humped camel sort of wave,” Ozer mentioned. “It’s too early to know if that may occur.”
The excellent news, he mentioned, is that vaccines and boosters nonetheless “hold individuals out of the hospital and hold individuals from dying.” (Reuters)