The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed the emergence of a new sub-variant of Omicron, called BA.2.75 and which has already been detected in more than 10 countries. Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants currently dominate the volume of Covid-19 infections worldwide. But this newcomer could change the game in the coming weeks.
All over the world, health indicators of the epidemic are on the rise again. In Europe and America, the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants are currently making waves. New cases of daily contamination are exploding. In countries like India, a new sublineage of BA.2.75 has also been detected. And other samples have also been confirmed, including Australia, Germany, Canada and New Zealand.
We will therefore have to reckon with the BA.2.75 sub-variant, this is in any case what the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on July 5. First reported in India, this new subvariant is believed to have been confirmed in 70 cases of Covid-infected patients in the country. According to WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan. “It is still too early to know if this subvariant has stronger immune invasion properties and will have more severe clinical effects”she said.
“There are still sequences available to analyze, but this subvariant seems to have some mutations on the spike protein of the virus. This is a key element of the virus that attaches to the human receptor, and it is essential to monitor this development”, added Dr. Swaminathan. According to the latest studies, 8 new mutations on the spike protein have been observed. This is why BA.2.75 is reported to have an unprecedented ability to infect people who are already infected or vaccinated. It would be significantly higher than BA.5 even though the variant responsible for the 7th wave in France was significantly higher than the other versions of the virus.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said reported Covid cases worldwide had increased by almost 30% in the past two weeks.
The pandemic is therefore far from over. Whether it is BA.4, BA.5 or now BA.2.75, the virus continues to circulate actively. For his part, doctor Richard Lessells, said that it is normal for variants of Covid-19 to have several different sub-lines. The Delta variant now has 133 sublines (AY.1 to AY.133). “So we expect to see more Omicron sublines over time.“, did he declare.
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