BY SARAKSHI RAI - 03/24/22
© Associated Press / Eugene Hoshiko
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that Omicron sub variant BA.2 is the predominant COVID-19 variant driving infections around the world.
The WHO said in its weekly epidemiological report that "in the last 30 days, BA.2 has become the predominant variant, with 251 645 sequences reported."
It added that it made up about 85.9 percent of cases reported to the WHO in the last month.
According to the WHO, among the major Omicron descendent lineages, "weekly trends show that the relative proportion of BA.2 has increased steadily since the end of 2021, with BA.2 becoming the dominant lineage by week seven of 2022."
The report added that this trend is most pronounced in the Southeast Asia region, followed by the Eastern Mediterranean, African, Western Pacific and European Regions. The sub variant BA.2 is currently dominant in the Region of the Americas as well.
During the last update on March 8, the WHO said that BA.1.1 was the dominant sub variant and that BA.2 made up 34 percent of new cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during the White House COVID-19 Response Team Briefing on Wednesday that the Omicron BA.2 sub variant of has shown increased transmission but there is no evidence of "severe disease."
This comes as U.S. infections are at an eight-month low, but administration officials have warned that the new sub variant could cause an uptick in cases.
"I would not be surprised if, in the next few weeks, we do see an uptick in cases," White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said last week. "The really important issue is that, will that be manifested in an increase in severe disease that would lead to hospitalization?"
New CDC data released Tuesday put BA.2 at about 35 percent of U.S. cases in the week ending on March 19 according to The Wall Street Journal. The variant accounts for more than 50 percent of cases in parts of Northeast, the report added.
4.26 million people across the UK are likely to have had Covid last week as ‘Stealth Omicron’ drives the rise in cases
By Karen Roberts
Friday, 25th March 2022, 2:33 pm
Covid-19 infections have risen sharply across most of the UK and are nearing record levels in England, while both Scotland and Wales have reached an all-time high, new figures show.
And the number of infections in the UK have risen by a million in a week.
Across the UK as a whole, 4.26 million people were likely to have had coronavirus last week – just short of the 4.30 million in the first week of 2022, which was the highest total since estimates began. The figure for the previous week was 3.3 million.
Northern Ireland is the only nation where infections are believed to be falling, with levels having dropped for two weeks in a row, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The steep rise in infections across much of the country is being driven by the so called ‘Stealth Omicron’ BA.2 variant, a more transmissible form of Omicron, the ONS said.
Positive Covid-19 lateral flow test. Picture: Bernard Ward/AdobeStock
Cases in Scotland rise for eighth week in a row
The figures are further evidence that Covid-19 is becoming rapidly more prevalent in the UK and come as the number of people in hospital with the virus continues to increase.
Around one in 16 people in private households in England – or 3.5 million people – are likely to have had Covid-19 in the week to 19 March.
This is up from one in 20, or 2.7 million people, in the previous week and is the third week in a row that infections are estimated to have risen.
Wales has also seen its third successive jump in infections, with the figure up from 125,400 people, or one in 25, to 192,900 people, or one in 16: a record high.
In Scotland, infections have now risen for eight weeks in a row and have also reached another record high, with nearly half a million people (473,800) likely to have had Covid-19 last week, or one in 11. This is up from 376,300 people, or one in 14, the previous week.
But in Northern Ireland infections have fallen for the second successive week and now stand at an estimated 108,700 people, or one in 17, down from 130,600 people, or one in 14.
An Omicron subvariant known as BA.2 is expected to become dominant in the U.S. in the coming weeks.
BA.2 is at least 30% more transmissible than its cousin BA.1, and it has been driving new COVID-19 surges in the United Kingdom and other European countries. According to a World Health Organization report, the highly contagious subvariant is dominating cases worldwide, and accounted for about 86% of cases reported to the WHO between Feb. 16 and March 17.
In Hong Kong, BA.2 recently brought on a deadly outbreak reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic.
Across the European Union, new daily cases are up more than 70% since the beginning of March. Hospitalizations in the U.K. have been going up as well.
So far, in the United States, BA.2 accounts for 35% of new coronavirus cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. health officials expect the strain to outcompete the other variants and to become dominant soon. However, there are some reassuring signs that BA.2 might not hit the United States as hard as Europe, and health experts in the U.S. don’t foresee a major surge in cases from the Omicron subvariant.
“We’ll likely see an uptick in cases, as we’ve seen in European countries, particularly the U.K.,” White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC’s “This Week.” “Hopefully, we won’t see a surge — I don’t think we will.”
While BA.2 appears to be more transmissible than BA.1 and is gaining ground in the U.S., it has not interrupted the country’s downward trend in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
“So right now in the United States, case rates are still falling, despite an increased predominance of BA.2 compared to BA.1,” said Dr. Lucy McBride, a Yahoo News medical contributor. “Because of widespread vaccinations and because people do have some immunity from past infections … we are seeing fewer deaths, hospitalizations, and overall we're doing much better than we were even a month ago.”
There are no indications so far that BA.2 causes more severe disease overall than its predecessor, Delta. Another plus, McBride said, is that the vaccines available have continued to do an excellent job of protecting against severe disease and death.
“Right now, it's very important to get vaccinated, particularly if you have not been vaccinated. We all will be exposed at some point to the coronavirus, whether it's this variant or the next one, and you'd rather be armed with antibodies and immunity from having been vaccinated,” McBride said.
People who are eligible for a booster shot, particularly the elderly or those at high risk because of underlying health conditions, should consider getting the additional dose, because it provides much more protection against Omicron than just two doses.
McBride's argument is supported by recent U.K. data showing that booster protection against symptomatic COVID-19 infection was 70% for BA.2 and 63% for BA.1. Protection against death caused by an Omicron infection was 95% in people who had received boosters and who were age 50 and older, the same research showed.
But what if you have already been infected with Omicron BA.1? Some recent research has shown that previous infection with the BA.1 version of the Omicron coronavirus variant provides strong protection against its relative, BA.2. However, McBride says it is worth talking to your primary care provider about getting the full vaccine series, based on your age, your underlying health conditions, your occupation and your immune status.
“Once you've been vaccinated, you've taken the claws and the fangs away from the virus. You've turned it into a more manageable illness, and the chance of getting severely ill and the chance of getting long-term consequences, while they're not zero, they're dramatically reduced,” she said.
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