Botswana’s health ministry has discovered a new variant of Covid-19 that is believed to be a mutation of the Omicron variant first detected in southern Africa late last year, reported Africa News.
The Botswana Ministry of Health and Wellness has said it is watching a variant called Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, which has already been detected in three other countries and in four people in Botswana.
All four cases, aged 30 to 50 years old, are currently being followed up to gather more information on the potential impact on the spread and severity of the disease. Notably, all four patients are fully vaccinated against coronavirus and have only been showing mild symptoms.
Christopher Nyanga, the Secretary-General of Botswana’s Health Ministry, said no conclusion has yet been made as to whether the sublineage is more lethal and more transmissible than the known omicron variant.
Nyanga said investigations were already going on to examine whether existing Covid-19 vaccines are effective against the new variant.
Botswana’s health authorities are urging the public to not panic and instead to be vigilant, and take a vaccination or booster shot if eligible.
“This is important because if new variants of Covid-19 emerge and trigger a new wave of infections (fifth wave), the impact could be more severe for unvaccinated people,” said Nyanga.
The discovery of the Omicron variant in South Africa and Botswana last year resulted in a travel ban to and from southern Africa by most Western countries.
Botswana’s Ministry of Health has said that it is awaiting further guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) on how to manage its transmission.
Meanwhile, the WHO has said that it had begun tracking the two sub-variants because of their additional mutations that need to be further studied to understand their impact on immune escape potential.
The XE coronavirus strain, a recombinant of BA.1 and BA.2 sub-variants of Omicron, has also been reported in many countries, including India.
