According to Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a sub-lineage called BA.2.75 for the Omicron version of the coronavirus was discovered in India. The World Health Organisation has taken this into consideration.
COVID-19 reports that globally reported cases increased almost 30% over the previous two weeks. “In the past week, cases increased in four of six WHO sub-regions,” said Mr Ghebreyesus at Wednesday’s press conference.
The driving force behind the waves in Europe and America is BA.4/BA.5. He said that a sub-lineage has been discovered in countries such as India, and is being followed.
Soumya Swminathan, WHO chief scientist and spokesperson for Omicron was quoted as saying that the potential Omicron Omicron sub-variant BA.2.75 emerged in an online video. Swaminathan stated that this sub-variant is now being called BA.2.75. It was first reported from India. Then it was also reported from around 10 other countries.
While there isn’t much sequence of this sub-variant available to analyze, she stated that “this sub-variant appears to be carrying a few mutations to the receptor-binding region of the spike proteins.” This is a crucial part of the virus which attaches to the receptor. That’s why we need to be vigilant. We don’t know yet if the sub-variant is capable of adding immune evasion, or if it has clinically more severe properties. This is not known.