Virologists have raised concerns about another highly contagious variant of Omicron arriving in the UK.
The BA.2.75 variant, called the Centaurus, is quickly gaining popularity in India after it was first unveiled there in May.
The new variant is believed to be spreading at an even faster rate than its cousins the Omicron BA.5 and BA.2 variants and has already been detected in around 10 other countries, including the UK, US, Australia, Germany and Canada.
It remains unclear whether it can cause more serious disease than other variants of Omicron, but scientists say it may be able to bypass immunity from vaccines and previous infection.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) designated BA.2.75 as a “variant under surveillance” on July 7, meaning there are indications it may be more transmissible.
Experts’ concerns are fueled by the large number of mutations that BA.2.75 contains compared to its Omicron predecessors.
Some of these mutations are in areas that are associated with the spike protein and could allow the virus to bind to cells more efficiently, said Matthew Binicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Another concern is that the genetic changes could make it easier for the virus to bypass antibodies — protective proteins produced by the body in response to a vaccine or an earlier infection.
But experts say vaccines and boosters are still the best defense against severe Covid.
It may take several weeks to find out if Omicron’s latest mutant can affect the trajectory of the pandemic.
Shishi Luo, head of infectious diseases at Helix, a company that provides viral sequencing information to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said BA.2.75 is another reminder that the coronavirus is constantly evolving — and distributes.
ECDC has designated BA.2.75 as a ‘variant under surveillance’, meaning there are indications that it may be more portable
(Getty Images)
“We would like to return to life before the pandemic, but we still have to be careful,” she said.
“We have to accept that we live with a higher level of risk now than before.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that Covid remains a global emergency almost two and a half years after it was first declared.
The UN agency’s emergency committee, made up of independent experts, said in a statement that rising cases, the continued evolution of the virus and pressure on health services in a number of countries meant the situation was still an emergency.
The number of new coronavirus cases reported globally rose for a fifth straight week, while the number of deaths remained relatively stable, the WHO said on Thursday.
Rising Covid continues to increase pressure on the NHS
(PA cable)
In the UN health agency’s weekly review of the Covid pandemic, the WHO said 5.7 million new infections were confirmed last week, marking a 6 percent increase. There were 9,800 deaths, roughly similar to the previous week’s figure.
Earlier this week, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic still qualifies as a global emergency and he was “concerned” about the recent spike.
“The virus is spreading freely and countries are not effectively dealing with the burden of the disease,” Dr Tedros said.
“New waves of virus show again that Covid is far from over.”
In the past two weeks, Covid cases reported to the WHO have jumped 30 percent, driven largely by Omicron’s highly contagious relatives, BA.4 and BA.5.
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