New Omicron Subvariant BA.2 Spreading Rapidly, Accounts For Roughly 1 Out Of Every 5 New Covid Cases Sequenced Globally, Says WHO
deadline.comThe World Health Organization has released a new report on Omicron sub-variant BA.2 which shows the strain accounted for 21.5% of all new Omicron cases analyzed worldwide in the first week of February.
Omicron, in turn, represented nearly all of the variants identified globally (98.3%) in the genomically-sequenced samples submitted to the GISAID data-sharing hub in the previous 30 days.
Translation: BA.2 is spreading rapidly, though it is unclear to what effect.BA.2 — sometimes called “Stealth Omicron” — accounted for the majority of new cases identified in 10 countries as of Monday.
Those include Denmark, India, China, Bangladesh, Brunei, Darussalam, Guam, Montenegro, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines. The report notes, however, that there are massive differences in its spread across the globe “with the South-East Asia Region reporting the highest prevalence of BA.2 among Omicron sequences (44.7%) and the Region of the Americas reporting the lowest prevalence (1%).” That’s good news for the U.S., most of which is removing restrictions after the winter Omicron wave.
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