Omicron Has A 'BA.2' Sub-Lineage Now & It's Pushed Out The Original Variant In Denmark
Denmark says there's no evidence that it causes more disease.
Just as some countries are beginning to get a handle on the Omicron variant, a new sub-lineage has popped up called BA.2.
New versions of the coronavirus often raise a bunch of questions, but experts are not ready to sound the alarm in the face of this offshoot, which is not quite the same as BA.1, a.k.a. Omicron.
BA.2 has been spotted in a few different countries, but it's most prominent in Denmark, where it's currently out-competed the original strain of Omicron, officials say.
Theodora Hatziioannou, an associate professor at Rockefeller University, told The Wall Street Journal the two strains likely emerged from the same source around the same time.
However, Danish officials say they aren't seeing a difference in hospitalizations between those who have BA.2 and BA.1.
"There is no evidence that the BA.2 variant causes more disease, but it must be more contagious," Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said at a press conference on Wednesday, per Reuters.
Denmark’s Statens Serum Institution (SSI) also suggested that BA.2 is more contagious in a statement.
“Preliminary calculations indicate that BA.2 is effectively well over one and a half times more contagious than BA.1,” said Tyra Grove Krause, professional director of SSI.
The U.K. government also addressed the new strain in an update earlier this week.
"We now know that BA.2 has an increased growth rate which can be seen in all regions in England. We have also learnt that BA.2 has a slightly higher secondary attack rate than BA.1 in households," said Dr. Susan Hopkins, the chief medical advisor for the U.K. Health Security Agency.
The new strain has not officially been labelled as a Covid-19 variant of concern by the WHO at this point, and experts haven't fully figured out whether it's all that different from Omicron.
“To me, BA.2 just isn’t significant,” John P. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, told Narcity in a brief statement.
He added that at this point, it’s not “interesting or important enough” to spend time on.
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