BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron variant Coronavirus is rising in many countries 

World Health Organization has also released a warning notice regarding the fatality of the new variant.

The japan-based experiment has also shown that this variant has more capability to cause serious illness than the older variant of the Covid-19 virus Delta. The world is still not forgetting the scene of the dead body on the roads without having any family member near them and now it seems the same is going to be repeating itself with the new face of humanity’s enemy called variant BA.2.

Kei Sato, a researcher at the University of Tokyo who had conducted the study, said this variant should not be treated as a new variant of Omicron but should be cautiously monitored. He also called the new variant BA.2 is Stealth Variant.

He said in a statement given to CNN, Dr. Sato said this variant BA.2 does not show in the RTPCR test because of the s-gene target failure, the way Omicron does. Labs, therefore, develop the latest searching method by adding the sequence of the Omicron variant to detect it.

He also told that establishing such a method that could detect the new variant will be our priority and many countries need to do that.

When largely every country is riding the high-speed horse to make their countrymen fully vaccinated with the vaccines of the Covid-19 virus, the virus is also making itself more truculent and powerful. In India including with other countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started giving booster doses to fight the Virus in January but it seems useless because the research is telling the new variant BA.2 can escape the booster dose immunity and will have a strong action against it.

The experiment also revealed that the new variant is also capable to resist some treatments like Sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody that is currently being used against the coronavirus current variant Omicron.

Regarding the new variant scientist Fuller says “What we will ultimately want is to have the host be ahead of the virus. In other words, our immunity, be a step ahead of the next variant that comes out, and I don’t know what we were quite there yet,” she stated it

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Many scientists from different parts of the world have expressed their thoughts with some study conclusions and hence Dr. Daniel Rhoads, section head of microbiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio said about the sub-variant BA.2 “it might be, from a human’s perspective, a worse virus than BA1 and might be able to transmit better and cause worse disease,” he reviewed the studies but he was not in the experiment.

As per the data revealed from different countries, the first country where the new variant replaced the old BA.1 is Denmark and almost has do not have any difference from the last variant BA.1 Omicron. The new variant has taken a place of the old variant BA.1 of Omicron but as the different countries report they are not seeing any higher bumps in hospitalization than expected.

WHO statement

“It is currently unclear what factors drive the growth advantage of BA.2 over BA.1. Preliminary data (From Denmark and the UK) shows similar antibody responses to BA.1 and BA.2,” told by the World Health Organization.

BA.2 Transmissibility

Many scientists and researchers have revealed that the BA.2 sub-variant of the Variant Omicron is more contagious compared to BA.1.

Contrary to the lab study, WHO has released a video on Thursday, 15 February 2022 in which the organization said “Among all sub-variants, BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1. however, there is no difference in terms of severity,” WHO technical lead Maria Van Kerkhova said in a video.

As per the WHO, BA.2 has been detected in 74 countries and 47 US states with having 30% more contagious rate than Omicron.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told that around 4% of Americans have been infected with the new variant BA.2 but other countries have a greater ratio than the US. The variant has its high dominance in the countries Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Denmark, Guam, India, Montenegro, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines, as per the weekly epidemiology report of the World Health Organization.

The researchers have compared the effect of BA.2 and BA.1 in animals and found that the animals infected with BA.2 got sicker and had worse lung function. The taste in the tissue of both the affected animals has been conducted and scientists found the lungs of BA.2 infected had more damage than those infected with BA.1.

A recent report by the World Health Organization state that the effectiveness of the vaccine will be the same and will work to defend your body against the virus but the research says contrary to the WHO report.

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