With the increase in the number of Omicron sub-version BA.2, are we seeing another Omicron surge in the coming days? Responding to this, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said, “Given how rapidly the diversity increased and then declined, we now have to see whether the pace of decline slows down or we will start seeing an increase again.” . And, if there is an increase in cases again, we may see more infections of BA.2.
Noting that the United Nations health agency is tracking Omicron over several sub-lineages, WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove said it is “unbelievable to see how quickly Omicron has taken over the delta and that we can look at the sequences available.” Seeing an increase in the number of sub-lineages. BA.2 Cases.
This subtype appears to be “continuously on the rise” and has increased prevalence in South Africa, Denmark, the UK and other countries.
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How serious and permeable is BA.2?
There are many ongoing studies comparing different subclasses of omicrons—what we know about their transmittance, severity, and effects of vaccines.
“Now across all subtypes, BA.2 is more permeable than BA.1. However, there is no difference in terms of severity.”
The WHO also reported that all other coronavirus cases, including alpha, beta and delta, continue to decline globally as Omicron knocks them out. Of the more than 400,000 COVID-19 virus sequences uploaded to the world’s largest virus database last week, more than 98% were omicrons.
16 million cases, 75,000 deaths recorded last week
The United Nations health agency said in its weekly report on the pandemic on Tuesday that there were just 16 million new COVID-19 infections and nearly 75,000 deaths worldwide last week. However, he pointed out that the decrease in the number of cases could be due to a drop in the testing rate across the world.
The Western Pacific was the only region to report an increase in new weekly cases, an increase of about 19 percent, with Southeast Asia reporting a decrease of about 37 percent, the biggest drop globally. The number of deaths increased by 38 percent in the Middle East and by nearly a third in the Western Pacific.
However, health officials have noted that Omicron causes milder illness than previous COVID-19 variants and that in countries with high vaccination rates, hospitalizations and mortality have not increased significantly, even That even with the spread of Omicron.
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