Covid cases are rising as omicron’s ‘stealth’ subvariant spreads around the world
KEY POINTS
- Covid cases are rising in Europe with an increasing number attributed to a “stealth” subvariant of the omicron strain.
- Covid cases have increased dramatically in the U.K. in recent weeks, and Germany continues to mark record high daily infections with more than 250,000 new cases a day.
- France, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands are also seeing Covid infections start to rise again, aided and abetted by the relaxation of coronavirus measures and the spread of subvariant BA.2.
LONDON — Covid cases are rising in Europe, with an increasing number being attributed to the prevalence of a “stealth” subvariant of the omicron strain.
Covid cases have increased dramatically in the U.K. in recent weeks, while Germany continues to mark record high daily infections with more than 250,000 new cases a day. Elsewhere, France,
Switzerland,
Italy and
the Netherlands are also seeing Covid infections start to rise again, aided and abetted by the relaxation of coronavirus measures and the spread of a new subvariant of omicron, known as BA.2.
Public health officials and scientists are closely monitoring BA.2,
which has been described as a “stealth” variant because it has genetic mutations that could make it harder to distinguish from the delta variant using PCR tests, compared with the original omicron variant, BA.1.
The new subvariant would be the latest in a long line to emerge since
the pandemic began in China in late 2019. The omicron variant — the most transmissible strain so far — overtook the delta variant, which itself supplanted the alpha variant — and even this was not the original strain of the virus.
Now, Danish scientists believe that the BA.2 subvariant is 1½ times more transmissible than the original omicron strain, and is already overtaking it. The BA.2 variant is now responsible for over half of the new cases in Germany and makes up around 11% of cases in the U.S.
That number is expected to rise further, as it has in Europe.
“It’s clear that BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 and this, combined with the relaxation of mitigation measures and waning immunity, is contributing to the current surge in infections,” Lawrence Young, a professor of molecular oncology at Warwick University, told CNBC on Monday.
“The increased infectiousness of BA.2 is already out-competing and replacing BA.1, and we are likely to see similar waves of infection as other variants enter the population.”
CONTINURD:
Is omicron subvariant BA.2 to blame for rising Covid cases? (cnbc.com)