Everything About the COVID-19 Omicron Subvariant Centaurus (BA.2.75) Whereby 2 Cases Were Detected in S’pore

Unless you’re Jeff Ng, you’ve probably forgotten that COVID-19 is still around.

In fact, you probably got a shock when you heard that two people in Singapore got infected with the Centaurus subvariant, and wonder if we’re facing a new mutant strain.

Well, fret not: for a start, it’s not a new variant, but a subvariant of the Omicron strain (again), and secondly, there hasn’t been any evidence to show that the new subvariant causes more serious symptoms (so far).

Here’s what you need to know about the COVID-19 Omicron subvariant Centaurus (BA.2.75).

Everything About the COVID-19 Omicron Subvariant Centaurus (BA.2.75) Whereby 2 Cases Were Detected in S’pore

Yesterday (16 July), MOH said that two imported COVID-19 cases here have been confirmed to be infected with a new Omicron sub-variant called BA.2.75 as of 14 July.

Both individuals had recently travelled to India and had immediately self-isolated after testing positive for COVID-19, and both of them have since fully recovered.

While this seems like a new subvariant, it isn’t: the BA.2.75 variant was actually first detected in India in May.

Back then, it was confined mainly in that region, but in recent days, it’s spread to other countries like the UK, US, Australia, Germany and Canada. It was only late last month that that virologist Tom Peacock of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London made it official with the name Centaurus, because let’s face it: calling subvariants like the version of an app will make it even more confusing.

Over in Europe, they’ve since designated it a “variant under monitoring”

Data about this subvariant is still being studied, but what’s observed so far is that it could be more transmissible, and it hasn’t been proven to cause more serious symptoms (so far).

Scientists believe that this could overtake the BA.5.

As usual, the same advice stays: take your vaccines or boosters, because a subvariant having a name doesn’t mean that things need to change.

After all…doesn’t this sound like old news nowadays when we see new subvariants?

Unless you’re Jeff Ng, of course.

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