New Omicron Variant Spreading Faster Than Original: Here's What US Researchers Said

A sub-lineage of the Omicron variant of coronavirus is able to spread faster than the original. It is transmitting at a rapid rate, and mild cases of the first may not offer much protection against future infections.

The findings cast doubt on hopes that the wave of omicron that's sweeping the world may help hasten the end of the pandemic. Calls for governments to treat Covid-19 as endemic like influenza are rising globally as people grow tired of pandemic restrictions, vaccines become more accessible and deaths remain relatively low.

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What the report says

The production of neutralizing antibodies during an Omicron infection appears related to the severity of the illness, according to one report from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, that was published online before being peer-reviewed. The milder form of most omicron cases in vaccinated people may leave those who recover from them still vulnerable to existing virus and future variants that emerge, the researchers said.

Similar analysis in UK

In a similar analysis by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), it was found that BA.2 ¨C a strain first detected in December ¨C had a comparatively higher growth rate in all observed areas of England, meaning cases were increasing faster than they were for BA.1, the most common form of Omicron.

Scientists are now tracking a rise in cases caused by a close cousin known as BA.2, which is starting to outcompete BA.1 in parts of Europe and Asia. The following is what we know so far about the new subvariant:

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"Stealth" variant

Globally, BA.1 accounted for 98.8% of sequenced cases submitted to the public virus tracking database GISAID as of Jan. 25. But several countries are reporting recent increases in the subvariant known as BA.2, according to the World Health Organization.

In addition to BA.1 and BA.2, the WHO lists two other subvariants under the Omicron umbrella: BA.1.1.529 and BA.3. All are closely related genetically, but each features mutations that could alter how they behave.

The BA.1 version of Omicron has been somewhat easier to track than prior variants. That is because BA.1 is missing one of three target genes used in a common PCR test. Cases showing this pattern were assumed by default to be caused by BA.1. BA.2, sometimes known as a "stealth" subvariant, does not have the same missing target gene.

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Instead, scientists are monitoring it the same way they have prior variants, including Delta, by tracking the number of virus genomes submitted to public databases such as GISAID. As with other variants, an infection with BA.2 can be detected by coronavirus home tests kits, though they cannot indicate which variant is responsible, experts said.

More transmissible?

Some early reports indicate that BA.2 may be even more infectious than the already extremely contagious BA.1, but there is no evidence so far that it is more likely to evade vaccine protection. Danish health officials estimate that BA.2 may be 1.5 times more transmissible than BA.1, based on preliminary data, though it likely does not cause more severe disease.

In England, a preliminary analysis of contact tracing from Dec 27, 2021, through Jan 11, 2022, by the UK Health Security Agency (HSA) suggests that household transmission is higher among contacts of people infected with BA.2 (13.4%) compared with other Omicron cases (10.3%). The HSA found no evidence of a difference in vaccine effectiveness, according to the Jan 28 report.

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A critical question is whether people who were infected in the BA.1 wave will be protected from BA.2, said Dr. Egon Ozer, an infectious disease expert at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

That has been a concern in Denmark, where some places that saw high case counts of BA.1 infections were reporting rising cases of BA.2, Ozer said. If prior BA.1 infection does not protect against BA.2, "this could be sort of a two-humped camel kind of wave," Ozer said.

"It's too early to know if that will happen." The good news, he said, is that vaccines and boosters still "keep people out of the hospital and keep people from dying."

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