Omicron subvariant "1.5 times more infectious" is spreading

The Omicron subvariant BA.2 is 1.5 times more infectious than the original Omicron strain and is quickly spreading.

The Omicron subvariant BA.2 is 1.5 times more infectious than the original Omicron strain and is quickly spreading, however, according to an immunologist, it is not leading to more hospitalisations.
Denis Kinane, founder of Cignpost Diagnostics, said the new variant “is rightly being treated with great caution” by the World Health Organisation.
“Because Omicron is very recent, it is unlikely that people will be affected by both variants as the immunity to the first over this short time will be protective.”
“The real concern here is the speed with which a new subclass of Omicron has appeared. “
“This is a worrying portent for more developments to come.”
He said the UK “needs to adopt a similarly cautious approach as we don’t want to have to go back to a lockdown again.”
“We have to be able to react quickly if this – or another new variant – turns out to be a serious danger to health or, worse, has the ability to evade vaccination.”
He has urged Britain to carry on with measures that “enable us to act speedily against new variants,” such as “sensible use of mask-wearing” and targeted PCR testing to allow for new variants to be genomically sequenced.
In South Africa, the Omicron subvariant accounts for 23 per cent out of 450 samples collected since January, studied by the country’s genomics surveillance network
The original Omicron variant made up 75 per cent.
However, in samples analysed from December, the BA.2 variant only made up 4 per cent of 2,243 samples with the original strain accounting for 94 per cent.
A senior scientist said that the BA.2 variant is being monitored, however, there is no clear evidence that the subvariant substantially differs from the original strain.
A senior World Health Organisation official said yesterday, February 3, that she was concerned that the subvariant is spreading in five African countries.
BA.2 has also been found in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal and South Africa.

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