in the past few months The main strain of omicron virus BA.1 has spread rapidly around the world. And causing the number of infected people to skyrocket in many countries. They accounted for about 98.8% of all new coronavirus cases, according to GISAID as of Jan. 25.
But now scientists are worried that The BA.2 subspecies omikron may be replacing the BA.1 strain in Europe and Asia.
Trevor Bedford, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, who tracks down coronavirus mutations. stated on Twitter on Friday that The BA.2 subspecies omikron now accounts for about 82% of new cases in Denmark, 9% of new infections in the UK and 8% in the US, according to GISAID and the university. Oxford (University of Oxford)
Some previous research reports have indicated that Omicron strain BA.2 may be more contagious than BA.1 strain, which is already highly invasive. Researchers in Denmark say BA.2 may be about 1.5 times more infectious than BA.1.
Research by the British Health Security Agency (HSA) showed that BA.2 had a family transmission rate of about 13.4%, while BA.1 strain had a rate of 10.3%.
However, there is no evidence that BA.2 will be more able to evade vaccines. and how severe the symptoms of COVID-19 are Including the question whether people who have been infected with Omicron virus BA.1 in the past can also be infected with BA.2 or not.
According to the World Health Organization, In addition to omicron strains BA.1 and BA.2, there are now other subspecies of omikron, BA.1.1.529 and BA.3, which all share a similar genetic code. However, there are certain traits that are mutated that may result in differences as well.