Zynda wrote:Amber G, the recent surge in cases in many countries, is it due to Omicron BA.1 or BA.2 variants?
BA2. (It may get it's own VOC name like Pi). Many countries, it has overtaken old variant and accounts for 90+% of all cases.
(It is worrisome as lab experiments from Japan show that BA2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as Delta and is as evasive as old Omicron cousin BA1
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It is also surging in USA (and fast), but CDC has not updated its data for almost 2 weeks..(It *tripled* in one week before .. was 3.6% but climbing fast. Expect it will be dominant by March. Omicron reinfections are possible too. So it is obviously worrying.
(Monitoring India's data too .. genetic sequencing is not as good as in some other countries and data update lags a few weeks behind)..
(Added later: Per GISAID . BA.1 accounts for the majority of the world’s Omicron cases but prevalence of BA.2 appears (IMO) to be increasing fast even in countries experiencing a decline in Omicron cases like India.
Per the latest reports, India (along with China, Pakistan, Bangladesh,Nepal, Philippines) have reported a possible predominance of BA.2 (South Africa,UK, Denmark USA etc too have seen an increase in the prevalence of BA.2)
Some East Asian region have reported higher prevalence of BA.2 but things may become clearer in coming weeks.