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Until recently it was the ‘secret’ Omicron: Here’s what we know about it


As the Omicron coronavirus surge wanes, researchers keep an eye out for a highly contagious disease. Subvariant known as BA.2. While it doesn’t appear to have the capacity to drive a large wave of new infections, the variant could potentially slow the current decline in Covid cases and make treatments more difficult.

Here’s what we know so far about BA.2.

It’s not really new. Scientists first discovered Omicron variant In November it quickly became clear that the viral lineage already existed as three genetically distinct varieties. Each branch of the Omicron had its own unique mutations. The most common at that time was BA.1, which spread rapidly around the world. BA.1 was almost entirely responsible for the record-breaking increase in cases this winter. At first, BA.1 was a thousand times more common than BA.2. But in early 2022, BA.2 began to be found in a larger proportion of new infections.

Seems easier to catch. Inside Denmarkfor example, the scientists studied the spread of both subvariables in homes. They found that people infected with BA.2 were significantly more likely to transmit BA.1 to people they shared a home with.

It’s not yet causing new surge in the United States and probably won’t. Current vaccines work against the BA.2 variant and are vulnerable to antibodies made by the immune system after a previous Omicron infection.

BA.2 doesn’t look any more violent than the previous version of Omicron. British researchers to create BA.2 infection does not carry a higher risk of hospitalization than BA.1.

The nickname ‘secret variant’ of BA.2 is outdated. BA.2 was designated a “hidden variant” when it did not show its presence in positive PCR test samples, making it difficult for researchers to distinguish Omicron cases from Delta and other variants. BA.2 carried a mutation that hides one of the three prominent coronavirus genes that the tests detected. Now that the vast majority of positive tests contain Omicron, the missing mutation does not matter: nearly all viruses picked up by PCR are BA.1 and those that do not are BA.2.



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