According to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday, subvariant BA.2 has now been detected in 57 countries. In some countries, the subvariant now accounts for more than half of all virus gene sequences collected. The WHO emphasized that there is little knowledge as to how exactly BA.2 differs from the previously dominant subtypes BA.1 and BA.1.1.
Maria Van Kerkhove, one of the WHO’s leading Covid experts, said that some initial data indicated that BA.2 had “a slightly increased growth rate over BA.1”. However, so far there are “no signs of a change in the severity” of BA.2. However, she stressed that regardless of the strain, Covid remains a dangerous disease and people should avoid contagion. In Austria, BA.2 has so far been detected in several sewage treatment plants.
The highly contagious omicron variant now accounts for 93 percent of all coronavirus samples collected. This includes the sub-variants BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3. According to the WHO, BA.1 and BA.1.1 – the first identified versions – still account for more than 96 percent of the omicron findings uploaded to the database of the global science initiative GISAID.
Source: Nachrichten
