The third wave of Coronavirus pandemic is slowing down across the globe. Subsequently, many countries are lifting the COVID- 19 restrictions. But, the officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) have flagged certain concerns about the sub-strain of Omicron.
Although, highly transmissible Omicron has caused less severe disease in comparison to the Delta variant.
Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead at the WHO, has mentioned in a briefing: “The virus is evolving and Omicron has several sub-lineages that we are tacking. We have BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3. its really quite incredible how omicron, the latest variant of concern has overtaken Delta around the world.”
While expressing their concern the WHO officials have said that “BA.2 is more transmissible.”
Kerkhove added: “We are still facing significant numbers of hospitalizations of Omicron. We are seeing a significant numbers of deaths. It is not the common cold; it is not influenza. We just have to be really careful right now.”
Lately, COVID-19 cases have spiked up in Azerbaijan, Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine.
Origin of BA.2
Even though the origins of BA.2 are still unclear, it was first detected in the Philippines in November. According to WHO, by now, the cases of sub-variant of Omicron have been detected in 57 countries.
#India is another country where #SARS_CoV_2 BA.2 is rapidly replacing #Delta & #Omicron BA.1. The pace of sharing sequences by India is very slow, median days from collection to deposition is 69 days according to GISAID. Genome sequencing among the states is not always fair.🧵 pic.twitter.com/ESQupxUet4
— Bijaya Dhakal (@BijayaKDhakal) January 30, 2022
Some places have recorded a sharp spike in the sub-variant cases. According to a molecular biologist Bijaya Dhakal, India is another country where BA.2 is rapidly replacing the Delta and Omicron BA.1 variants.