The mutated version of the highly contagious omicron variant known as BA.2 has reached into 57 countries of the world – says WHO.
According to the World Health Organization, the data indicates that this newer version is far more infectious than the previous strains of omicron.
Over the last few weeks, the mutated sub-variant BA.2 has slowly surpassed the originally omicron variant BA.1 from being the most dominant across the globe.
BA.1 is still behind 96% of the omicron cases across the globe but in a few countries, the BA.2 strain has overthrown the original strain.
WHO said that there is a very minute difference between both variants but early evidence has showcased that BA.2 is more infectious than BA.1
Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead of WHO for coronavirus pandemic stated “there was no indication that there is a change in severity with the BA.2 sub variant.”
According to the investigations made by the health agency, the main characteristics which differentiate BA.2 from BA.1 are transmissibility and its astonishing ability to escape the immunity defense. It should definitely be “prioritized independently” as the cases caused by it are surging at a rapid rate.
The BA.2 omicron variant has been detected in 57 different countries such as Denmark, India, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Singapore.
The variate tracking tool using the data from GISAID has declared that this new sub-variant is fast spreading across America. Up till now, approximately 29 states have detected the new sub-variant including Massachusetts, Arizona, Hawaii, and California.
The Omicron variant was discovered last November and since then various sub-variants have been identified to be belonging to the same omicron family.
According to WHO, the sub-variants like BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.3 are all under close monitoring by the agency in order to identify the threat and danger of its spread and how to curtail it timely.
From all the research and monitoring it has been determined that the genetic composition of BA.2 is the most infectious one and the composition is very hard to identify, the reason why this sub-variant is named “stealth omicron” by the scientists.
