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Updated February 18th, 2022 at 21:33 IST

WHO warns against sub-variant BA.2 amid declining cases of Omicron; 'Virus is evolving'

WHO has expressed concern related to an Omicron sub-variant strain and said "BA.2 is more transmissible" than any other variant of the COVID-19.

Reported by: Amrit Burman
Omicron
Image: AP/ Pixabay/ Twitter@GHS | Image:self
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The third wave of the COVID pandemic, fueled by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, is slowing down across the world. In view of this, many countries have started lifting the restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the infection. Now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern related to an Omicron sub-variant strain.

At a briefing on Thursday, Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead at the WHO, said, "The virus is evolving and Omicron has several sub-lineages that we are tracking. We have BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, and BA.3. It's really quite incredible how Omicron, the latest variant of concern, has overtaken Delta around the world. The majority of the sequences are from the BA.1 sub-lineage. We are also seeing an increase in the proportion of BA.2 sequences, "she added. 

WHO warns against sub-variant BA.2 amid declining cases of Omicron 

Expressing deep concern over a sublineage, the WHO official said that "BA.2 is more transmissible" than any other variant of the coronavirus. However, there was no concrete evidence that BA.2 was more lethal than BA.1, but experts were monitoring, she added. Taking to Twitter, the WHO said that around 75,000 deaths from COVID-19 were reported last week. In a series of tweets, the WHO also mentioned that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is not mild but less severe than the previous Delta variant. "We are still seeing significant numbers of hospitalizations for Omicron. We are seeing a significant number of deaths. It is not the common cold, it is not influenza. We just have to be really careful right now," said Kerkhove.

According to the WHO, the latest Omicron variant roughly accounts for one in every five new Omicron cases recorded across the world. It is to be mentioned here that the WHO on Tuesday said in a press briefing that a whole new wave of infections fueled by the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is moving towards the east of Europe. The WHO has also urged the authorities to improve vaccination and health safety measures. Notably, cases of COVID have surged in the past two weeks in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, and Ukraine, said WHO's Europe regional director in a statement. 

Image: AP/ Pixabay/ Twitter@GHS

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Published February 18th, 2022 at 21:33 IST

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