Just as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has rightfully warned during their press conferences, COVID-19 variants have shown a staggering ability to mutate and evolve.
This time, a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant has been found, termed as Omicron Subvariant BA.2 or the “stealth variant”.
The Subtle Differences between Omicron BA.1 and BA.2
The reason why BA.2 had been coined as the “stealth variant” is because of its ability to avoid detection on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test method, as compared to the Delta variant.
According to the Department of Medical Science Director-General Supphakit Siriluck, the discovery of the Omicron variant in Thailand began in December 2021, and it has been confirmed that the Omicron BA.1 variant contains the mutations of K417N, T478K, N501Y and del69/70 from the original COVID-19 virus.
- K417N reportedly has immune evasion properties.
- N501Y helps the virus cling more tightly to cell receptors and muscle our antibodies.
- T478K has not been associated with enhanced virulence, but the mutant amino acid at the end has been observed to interact with the human ACE2 as well and is commonly present in many Omicron strains.
- Del69/70 can bind with human ACE2, which is a protein on the surface of many cell types.
Thus far, Dr Supphakkit stated that there is no evidence that BA.2 differs from BA.1 in terms of transmissibility, or has the potential to cause more severe symptoms in patients, or be able to evade the immunity created after recovering from COVID-19 or being administered a vaccine.
It is good news that it scarcely differs from the original Omicron lineage, but what has allowed it to avoid detection?
That question remains unanswered for now.
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The Spread of Omicron and the BA.2 Lineage
Roughly three weeks after the Omicron variant was first discovered, it started to spread across a number of countries, with several clusters forming in populated and tourist areas.
Soon after, Omicron started becoming the dominant variant in many countries.
In Thailand, it accounts for 94.6% of the patients whilst the other 5.4% suffer from the Delta variant.
Likewise, Singapore is currently facing a spike in Omicron cases, though the Ministry of Health (MOH) has stopped differentiating between Omicron and non-Omicron cases.
However, it was only on 2 January 2022 where the Omicron BA.2 subvariant was officially discovered in Thailand.
14 people have contracted the Omicron subvariant in Thailand thus far, and one of the patients are dying.
The worrisome part is that the Omicron Subvariant BA.2 variant has grown rapidly, unbeknownst to most scientists and researchers.
The BA.2 Sequence has already appeared in 40 countries. With the greatest number of cases reported in Denmark, followed by India, Britain, Sweden, and then Singapore.
In Denmark, it already accounts for 20% of all COVID-19 cases in the last week of 2021, rising to 45% two weeks into 2022.
A researcher at Statens Serum Institute by the name of Anders Fomsgaard remarked that he can’t explain the rapid growth of the subvariant, but its growth is more perplexing than it is worrying.
Fomsgaard theorises that it might be more resistant to the immunity in the population, which has allowed it to infect more people.
No one is certain about the extent of its differences yet, and researchers don’t know if it’s possible for those with Omicron BA.1 to catch Omicron BA.2 shortly thereafter.
If that is a possibility, then there might be two simultaneous peaks in the epidemic.
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Featured Image: Shutterstock / RaffMaster
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