New COVID-19 variant worse than Omicron can emerge in the next 2 years, warns UK's CMO

At a time when people are feeling relieved after witnessing a consistent dip in COVID-19 cases, concerns have surfaced about a new COVID variant that may emerge in the coming two years. Warning about the same, England's chief medical officer Chris Witty said that are "high chances" of a new COVID variant to emerge in the next 2 years and it will be worse than the Omicron variant, reported the Daily Mail.

Witty, who was speaking at the Local Government's Association public health conference, also said that there is a "long way to go" before the virus comes to an end further insisting that it will remain with people for the rest of their lives. 

He also noted that the new variant can cause worse problems than the Delta and Omicron variants and the challenges from the strain is "not by any means trivial" and its emergency would significantly change the balance of risk. "It would be incorrect to assume that it has reached to stable state across the globe", he further added. 

Meanwhile, as health experts across the world have been clearing the air over the fears around COVID by saying that it could end up like a common cold-causing pathogen, Wotty said that the "de-risking" COVID should not be done and the world needs to remain causes about it.

New COVID-19 variant detected 

Notably, this came at a time when a new hybrid variant has been reportedly detected across the world. The strain which is said to be a combination of the Delta and Omicron variants is known as the "Deltacron". The virus which was first detected in the United Kingdom in mid-February has started spreading out to other countries raising the threat of a new risk. 

Confirming about same, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had recently stated that the evidence of the combination virus has been recently detected saying that the virus continuously evolves and more COVID variants are expected as the virus is allowed to circulate at an intense level. 

According to NHS UK, as far as the symptoms of the new variant are concerned, it might remain the same as was the case for the others including high temperature, cough, loss of smell or taste, among others. Though scientists are evaluating it. 

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