Australia: Two more Omicron sub variants detected in NSW, more than 10,000 infected again

Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) has detected at least two Coronavirus sub variant of the highly transmissible Omicron strain that has caused spike in the total cases in the recent week. Around 11,000 people across the state have contracted COVID-19 infection more than once. The two subvariants Omicron BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 have been detected in NSW last week in addition to six BA.4 infections. 

Omicron sub variants spreads across NSW 

Australian government is also closely monitoring the BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 variants that have caused a sudden trajectory in South Africa and New York. Due to the recent uptick of the COVID-19 cases, South Africa has entered the potential fifth wave while the positivity rate and hospital admissions have increased across New York. NSW’s Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant cautioned against looking to the experiences of other countries to predict what may come next in. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant has meanwhile cautioned that the trend in other countries might not be basis to predict the wave in NSW.

“We are preparing that there will be future waves, but it may be a different variant to BA.4 or BA.5,” Chant said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. 

An outgoing co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, Allen Cheng noted that it would be too early to predict whether the country would be hit by a new wave driven by the highly transmissible Omicron subvariants. “Australia has had a lot of infection but also extremely high vaccination coverage. If you look at the average antibody levels, they are probably higher in Australia than in South Africa,” Cheng reportedly said.

As per the NSW Health’s latest surveillance report, the state has detected at least two BA.5 cases and six BA.4 cases, and separately the genetic sequencing database, GISAID found four BA.2.12.1 COVID-19 cases. The new substrains BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1 spreading in NSW now account for at least 80 percent of COVID-19 infections in United States’ New York. United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on May 3 restated the COVID-19 mask recommendation for travel on public transportation including the commercial airplanes and the trains. In a statement, the health body said that it is “proceeding with caution” by reinstating its mask wearing in view, keeping a close eye on rising COVID-19 cases. This includes kids aged 2 or older that are also now required to wear mask while travelling on the airplanes, trains and buses.