Previously, WHO was keeping track of BA.1 and BA.2 which are now dominant in many countries as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3
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Health experts are now concerned about two sub variants of the highly transmissible original BA.1 Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The BA.4 and BA.5 variants are already being tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO) after being discovered in South Africa. Experts are concerned whether these sub variants are more dangerous or infectious.
Previously, WHO was keeping track of BA.1 and BA.2 which are now dominant in many countries as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3.
Tulio de Oliviera, the Director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) in South Africa, shared a Twitter thread regarding the information about these newly found sub-variants. He said that the spike profiles of these sub-variants are similar to BA.2, except for the additional mutations. One of the spike proteins found in BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages was previously detected in Delta, Epsilon and Kappa variants of coronavirus. There is no cause for worry right now as no excess hospitalisation or deaths have been reported due to these sub variants. According to the WHO, further studies are needed to acknowledge “their impact on immune escape potential.”
New Omicron BA.4 & BA.5 detected in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and U.K. Early indications that these new sublineages are increasing as a share of genomically confirmed cases in SA. No cause for alarm as no major spike in cases, admissions or deaths in SA pic.twitter.com/PrcBWpVWtl
— Tulio de Oliveira (@Tuliodna) April 11, 2022
Omicron/BA.4/BA.5 – what we know and what we don’t know:
— Tulio de Oliveira (@Tuliodna) April 11, 2022
1) From the initial discovery, Omicron VOC was a family of different sublineages (initially BA.1 – BA.3)
2) Further evolution of Omicron and identification of additional Omicron sublineages is entirely expected.
As per WHO, only a few dozen cases of BA.4 and BA.5 have been recorded in the global GISAID database. The UK Health Agency’s report says that BA.4 variant had been found in South Africa, Denmark, Botswana, Scotland and England from 10 January to 30 March. However, all the cases of BA.5 were recorded from South Africa last week. But Botswana’s health ministry had identified four new cases of BA.4 and BA.5, all among people aged 30 to 50. They were fully vaccinated and no major symptom was recorded.
According to research, the BA.2 Sub lineage is now the globally dominant strain of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and it is present in almost 94 percent of all tested samples.
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