Omicron sub-variant BA.2 harder to identify, found in 5 African nations: WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday said that the "stealth" sub-variant of Omicron BA.2 has been detected in at least five African countries, expressing concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine supplies to Africa, where just 11% of the population is fully vaccinated. The new sub-variant has seeped into the African continent, which had recently emerged from its fourth pandemic wave driven by the Omicron variant.

Omicron cases have declined for the third straight week, said the WHO Africa, adding that the highest number of COVID-19 cases has been BA.1 sub-lineage. More than 5300 cases have been recorded across 20 countries of the so-called stealth omicron sub-lineage, whereas 43 cases of BA.3 have been documented in three countries.

As Omicron subsided, COVID-19 cases in Africa dropped by 15% compared with the week before, while deaths fell slightly by 5%, the WHO informed in a release. But with BA.2 also spreading, there has been no difference in the disease severity noticed. "BA.2 has been reported in five countries, that is Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal as well as South Africa," Dr Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi told a press conference. 

'This virus is dangerous..': WHO

The BA.2 sub-variant is also now dominant in Denmark and India and is more transmissible than Omicron by 30%. WHO demanded that countries should sequence more coronavirus samples so the extent of the BA.2 spread and its impact can be determined. In Africa, it has spread to Senegal in West Africa, Kenya in East Africa and Malawi, Botswana and South Africa in southern Africa. “We’re a bit concerned that we may have missed some of this BA.2 in some of the samples that we’ve screened previously,” Nicky Gumede-Moeletsi, a virologist with the WHO, said during the conference. 

World Health Organization’s chief had also warned earlier yesterday that it is “premature” for nations to either declare victory over the COVID-19 pandemic or lift the restrictions to halt the transmission. WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the reporters, "It is premature for any country to either surrender or to declare victory.” 

“This virus is dangerous, and it continues to evolve before our very eyes,” the WHO chief had added. It is to note that his remarks came after Denmark became the first European Union (EU) nation to lift all of its domestic curbs placed to stem COVID-19 even though the nation continued to record cases of the milder Omicron variant.

Reports suggest that several other countries are eying similar moves. He then warned that 93% of all coronavirus specimens collected in the past month were found to be several sub-lineages of the Omicron variant such as BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3.  While Omicron was named B.1.1.529 after South Africa reported the variant to the agency at least 10 weeks ago, its sub-lineages BA.1 and BA.1.1 were the first versions identified. BA.1 and BA.1.1 still account for more than 96% of all the sequences of omicron cases submitted to the public virus tracking database GISAID.