For several weeks, a sub-variant of the Omicron variant has been regularly detected in several countries including France. This was named BA.2. It would already be in the majority in India and Denmark. What do we know about this new variant?
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the Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa in November 2021, is now the majority. Extremely contagious, hence its dazzling invasion, it causes less severe symptoms. The initial variant, BA.1, mutated in turn to give rise to the BA.2 variant. This phenomenon of variant mutations is known and expected; the more the virus circulates, the more the probabilities of mutations increase. The mutations of the BA.2 variant are approximately 20 in number. Half of them are at the level of the protein Spike, key to the virus entering cells and… target of vaccines.
A more contagious subvariant
Cases have been detected in several countries: in India and South Africa at the end of December 2021, then in the Philippines, Denmark, Sweden and France. Only fifteen cases have been identified in France for the moment. But not all samples are sequenced.
In Denmark, this sub-variant became the majority very quickly, in barely 10 days. Unexpectedly, it supplanted the initial BA.1 subvariant. As a reminder, the variant Omicron is already a virus extremely contagious, about 10 times more contagious than the original strain of the coronavirus that appeared in Wuhan at the end of 2019. These data therefore suggest that the BA.2 subvariant is even more contagious than the initial subvariant of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2.
A no more severe subvariant
Early data from India and Denmark suggest that this subvariant would not cause symptoms more severe than sub-variant BA.1. In update note of the scientific council dated January 20, 2022, an allusion is made to the BA.2 subtype of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. It reads: ” the BA.1 subtype represents 90% of circulating variants, and the BA.2 subtype between 3 and 4%, especially in Africa and Asia. “While the scientific council points out the existence of several subtypes of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, it further specifies, “ all these sub-variants seem to have the same characteristics “. Moreover, at this stage, it is absolutely not possible to give information on the efficacy of vaccines on this sub-variant.
In France, it’s time to return to normal with the latest announcements from Jean Castex: end of compulsory telework, end of wearing a mask outdoors, reopening of nightclubs, end of gauges… In mid-December, we thought to have reached in France the peak of the variant Delta and be on the descent… when the Omicron variant arrived, lightning fast. Although it is of course too early to draw conclusions as to the contagiousness and severity of the BA.2 sub-variant, let us hope that the rise in contamination of recent days is not due to the spread of the BA.2 variant.
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