BA.2 Subvariant Now Globally Dominant, Triggers Case Surge Again in Europe and Asia

KOMPAS.com – Subvarian Omicron BA.2 is now dominant worldwide and is driving spikes in many countries in Europe and Asia, raising concerns over a potential new wave in the United States.

Here’s a summary of the information known about deployment subvarian BA.2 so far.

Also read: Records 3,500 Covid-19 cases in a day, China finally locks most of Shanghai

More contagious

Subvarian BA.2 now represent nearly 86 percent of all world Covid-19 casesaccording to the World Health Organization (WHO) as reported by Reuters on Tuesday (29/3/2022).

It is even more contagious than its highly contagious Omicron predecessors, BA.1 and BA.1.1.

However the evidence so far suggests that the BA.2 subvariant is no more likely to cause severe disease.

Like other variants in the Omicron strain, the vaccine is less effective against the BA.2 subvariant than previous variants such as Alpha or the original coronavirus strain, and protection decreases over time.

However, according to UK Health Security Agency data, protection can be restored with booster injections, particularly to prevent hospitalization and death.

Also read: Shanghai Won’t Lockdown Even though Covid-19 Soared, Started to Abandon the Zero-Covid Strategy?

The emergence of the BA.2 subvariant was blamed for the recent spike in China as well as record Covid-19 infections in European countries such as Germany and the UK.

But some European countries are now seeing a slower increase in new cases, or even a decline.

The BA.2 subvariant is called the “stealth variant” because it is a little more difficult to track. The missing gene in BA.1 allows it to fail to be traced via common PCR assays, so it can only be found by genome sequencing.

Also read: Worried about the Covid-19 lockdown, Shanghai residents panic buying wholesale food

–
–