UKHSA designates sub-lineage of Omicron COVID variant

The UK Health Security Agency has designated a sub-lineage of the dominant and highly transmissible Omicron coronaviruses variant as a variant under investigation and said it could have a growth advantage.

2 is being investigated, but has not been designated a variant of concern, because it does not have the specific mutation seen with Omicron that can help to distinguish it from Delta.

It is the nature of viruses to evolve and mutate, so it is to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge, said Dr Meera Chand, incident director at the UKHSA.

Our continued genomic surveillance allows us to detect them and assess whether they are significant. Britain has sequenced 426 cases of the BA. Early analysis suggested an increased growth rate compared to the original Omicron lineage, and the UKHSA said that while there was uncertainty about the significance of the changes to the viral genome, early analysis suggested an increased growth rate compared to the original Omicron lineage, BA. 40 countries reported BA, according to the UKHSA. There were 2 sequences with the most samples reported in Denmark, followed by India, Britain, Sweden and Singapore.

2 has grown rapidly. In the last week of 2021, it accounted for 20% of all COVID cases, rising to 45% in the second week of 2022.

Anders Fomsgaard, researcher at Statens Serum Institut SSI, said he did not yet have a good explanation for the rapid growth of the sub-lineage, but he was puzzled, but not worried.

It may be that it is more resistant to the immunity in the population, which allows it to infect more. He told broadcaster TV2 that there was a possibility that people with BA had been infected. 1 might not be immune from then onwards from catching BA. He said it was possible. We have to be prepared for it in that case. We could see two peaks of this epidemic, in fact. The initial analysis made by Denmark's SSI showed no difference in hospitalisations for BA. BA was a better field than BA.