Things To Know About The New Omicron Sub-Variant

As you already know that Omicron is currently the dominant strain of the coronavirus that is accounting for most number of cases. Just as we thought that Omicron is finally over, what came as a cause for concern is the news of a sub-variant. We are yet to know if it is a major threat. This blog aims to delve deep into it so you have some form of idea about what’s in store.

According to chief scientists at the World Health Organization, the viruses continue to keep evolving that’s why you see different patterns within Omicron and therefore the different sub-lineages like BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3, BA.1 being predominant globally at the beginning, while subtype BA.2 is increasing in some countries, in fact, 30 countries to date have reported of increasing rates. BA.2 seems to be replacing BA.1. BA.2 is different in that some of the mutations it has and it does appear to have a little growth advantage- 50-100 percent growth advantage over its BA.1 counterpart.

Is the new Omicron sub-variant more dangerous?

 A question that seems to be on everyone’s mind.

As you know Omicron is highly transmissible, spreads very quickly through the population. When it comes to clinical severity, Omicron causes less severe disease in the majority of people and fewer hospitalizations and fewer deaths. Talking about whether Omicron can evade our immune responses we have from vaccines or previous infections, BA.2 does appear to have an edge in terms of improved transmissibility (that’s why replacing BA.1), however, it doesn’t seem to, so far, cause severe disease. One thing with BA.2 is that it doesn’t have mutation that enabled BA.1 to be detected on regular PCR. This means the S gene target failure cannot be used as a proxy for the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant. This is to say that it is way tougher to sample BA.2 sub-variant.

The only way to pick up on BA.2 sub-variant is through sequencing given the lack of surrogate there was with the BA.1 that could be detected on regular PCR.

Can you be infected by the Omicron sub-variant after being infected by Omicron?

Scientists are closely monitoring the data on re-infections. It’s too early to say anything. However, it’s quite unlikely to happen. Both have the properties of immune evasion so they can re-infect previously vaccinated or infected individuals much more than previous variants could. But between BA.1 and BA.2, we are still uncertain about their capacity to re-infect at this point.

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