A tweet from microbiologist Emmanuel André caused concern on Thursday. The KU Leuven expert mentioned the presence in Belgium of a new sub-variant of Omicron, baptized BQ.1. According to him, he “is rapidly emerging in several countries around the world”including Belgium. “It is possible that this one will play an important role soon”he warned.
What to fear a return in force of the Covid-19 on our territory? Not so fast. Contacted by us, Yves Van Laethem and Steven Van Gucht indicated that there was no need to worry for the moment. Certainly, the situation will have to be closely monitored, but it has already been the case since the start of the pandemic.
“Nothing is known about the contagiousness or the severity of this subvariant so it is really too early to comment on its potential impact”juge le virologue Steven Van Gucht. “In the UK it has been observed but it is still very inconspicuous in our country. However, we can expect a new variant to become dominant in the coming weeks, this is surely only a question of time for BA.5 to be supplanted. It is therefore a very good reason to get vaccinated today. It is time to renew your immune response”.
Same story on the side of infectious disease specialist Yves Van Laethem. “It cannot be said whether this new sub-variant of Omicron will cause a new wave of infections.he believes. Precise data is not yet available from us. It is also possible that the variant currently dominant in Belgium is responsible for a further increase in cases, it is not impossible. But at the moment, we don’t see any other variant coming to take over.”