New COVID-19 Omicron Sub-variant 'BA.2.75' Found In India & Other Countries, Says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that a new sub-variant of the Omicron strain of the COVID-19 virus has been found in India and some other countries.

According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, globally there was an increase of nearly 30 per cent in reported new COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks.

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We are following it, says WHO

¡°In Europe and America, BA.4 and BA.5 are driving waves. In countries like India a new sub-lineage of BA.2.75 has also been detected, which we're following,¡± he said.

On the emergence of the potential Omicron sub-variant BA.2.75, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in a video posted on Twitter that there has been an emergence of a sub-variant that is being called the BA.2.75 ¡°first reported from India and then from about 10 other countries.¡±

What do we know about the BA.2.75 variant?

She said there are still limited sequences available of the sub-variant to analyse, ¡°but this sub-variant seems to have a few mutations on the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein. So obviously, that's a key part of the virus that attaches itself to the human receptor. So we have to watch that. It's still too early to know if this sub-variant has properties of additional immune evasion or indeed of being more clinically severe. We don't know that."

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¡°So we have to wait and see,¡± she said, adding that WHO is tracking it and the WHO Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is constantly looking at the data from around the world.

¡°And at any time if there is an emergence of a virus that looks very different from a previous one, enough to be called a separate variant of concern, then the committee will do that.¡±

COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet

The discovery of the new sub-variant in India comes at a time when some epidemiologists had said that COVID-19 is not a pandemic, but has entered an endemic phase in India.

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They had said that the current spike in new cases across India is normal during the transition phase.

WHO Incident Manager COVID-19 Abdi Mahamud, however, said that now is not the time to declare that the pandemic is over.

¡°We're still in the midst of the pandemic and the virus has a lot of force left. So whether it is the BA.4 or BA.5 or BA.2.75, the virus will continue. It does what it does good,¡± he said adding that people and communities must continue to wear masks, avoid crowds and ensure that the most vulnerable and high-risk population is protected.

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