As the government of Europe raised their voice to ease the Covid-19 restrictions, the fear of another wave of the virus is raising concerns among scientists. An Omicron sub-variant BA.2 which is under the investigation of virologists is spreading among different countries.
On Friday, The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) declared the sub-variant as a "variant under the investigation"
Though the cases of this variant across the UK is still low, 426 as of Friday. BA.1 is still dominating.
Dr Meera Chand, UKHSA Incident Director, said that we will continue to see more variants of the virus in future because viruses mutate and evolve vastly.
How many sub-strains does Omicron have?
According to the WHO, the sub-strains of Omicron have 3 types: BA.1 BA. 2 BA.3
Though 99% of the cases are of BA.1
Where have the cases of variants BA.2 spotted?
Along with the UK, other countries which have this variant include Denmark, India, Norway, Sweden, Singapore. Denmark has the highest cases among them.
UKHSA said besides the above-mentioned countries, 40 countries reported this sub-variant.
How dangerous is the BA.2 sub-variant?
There is little information about the BA.2 yet. But as per of report, the hospitalization rate is still the same, there is no impact on the rate of hospitalization,
Though it is believed that it may have high transmissible rate than the BA.1
It is believed that the vaccines are effective in this BA.2, but the severity rate is still under investigation.
Tom Peacock, the virologist from Imperial College London, tweeted that consistent growth across many countries suggests that BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1
England's R-value drop
The R number range, the rate at which viruses spread in the country is found to drop from 1.1-1.5 to 0.8-1.1 in England which is suggesting that the pandemic is declining.
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