The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said the emerging BA.2 form of the Omicron coronavirus variant does not seem to be any more severe than the original BA.1 form, reported India Today News.
The WHO Director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it’s premature for any country either to surrender or to declare victory as the virus is dangerous continues to evolve. He said the health experts are currently tracking four sub-lineages of the Omicron variant.
The comments come as the BA.2 version of Omicron begins to replace the original BA.1 version in various countries such as Denmark. These two main Omicron lineages differ from each other by more than 40 point mutations. BA.2 was first identified in South Africa in early December.
“There’s no indication that there’s a change in severity,” said WHO technical lead for Covid-19, Maria Van Kerkhove.
Kerkhove told reporters that information about the sub-variant was very limited, but that some initial data indicated BA.2 had a slight increase in growth rate over BA.1. Notably, several recent studies have hinted that BA.2 is more infectious than the original Omicron.
The WHO official stressed that regardless of the strain, Covid-19 remained a dangerous disease and people should strive to avoid catching it through vaccines, masking, and social distancing measures.
“We need people to be aware that this virus is continuing to circulate and that it is continuing to evolve,” Kerkhove said. “It’s really important that we take measures to reduce our exposure to this virus, whichever variant is circulating.”
She said that many countries have still not reached their peak in cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus, so, measures to curb its spread should be eased slowly.
WHO’s emergencies chief Mike Ryan urged countries to chart their own path out of the pandemic and not blindly follow others in relaxing measures.
