Alarm Bells Ring Over New Omicron Variants BA.2.75 and BA.5.2.1
BA.2.75 appears to spread even faster than the highly-contagious BA.5, the strain that currently dominates the United States. BA.2.75 is making its way across India and about 10 other countries, including the U.S., where a third case was detected last week. Meanwhile, a new strain of BA.5 has materialized, but its effect is still unclear.
AP:
New Coronavirus Mutant Raises Concerns In India And Beyond
The quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious omicron mutant that’s worrying scientists as it gains ground in India and pops up in numerous other countries, including the United States. Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection. It’s unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than other omicron variants, including the globally prominent BA.5. (Ungar and Ghosal, 7/11)
And a new strain of BA.5 has appeared —
Axios:
New COVID Omicron Subvariant Discovered In Shanghai
Health officials in Shanghai announced on Sunday that they have discovered a new COVID-19 subvariant, Omicron BA.5.2.1, Reuters reports. (Saric, 7/10)
Bloomberg:
Shanghai Outbreak Grows As First Sub-Variant Case Detected
Covid-19 cases in Shanghai continued to climb as parts of China’s financial hub face more rounds of mass testing, with new sub-variants providing a constant challenge to the country’s zero-tolerance approach to the virus. The city recorded 69 new infections for Sunday, the most since late May and up from 57 the day before. Cases have increased abruptly after a period of little to no trace of the virus, where officials declared victory over Covid and praised their handling of a crisis that left China’s most global city locked down for two months in May and June. (7/11)
More on the spread of BA.4 and BA.5 —
Fortune:
Move Over, Measles: Dominant Omicron Subvariants BA.4 And BA.5 Could Be The Most Infectious Viruses Known To Man
COVID was relatively deadly, but not ultra-transmissible when it burst onto the global scene in late 2019 and early 2020. These days, due a number of factors, the reverse is true: It's considerably less lethal, but more exponentially transmissible. Globally dominant Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are neck and neck with measles in the competition for the title of most infectious disease known to man, according to an Australian professor of biostatistics and epidemiology. (Prater, 7/9)
The Washington Post:
As BA.5 Variant Spreads, Risk Of Covid Reinfection Grows
America has decided the pandemic is over. The coronavirus has other ideas. The latest omicron offshoot, BA.5, has quickly become dominant in the United States, and thanks to its elusiveness when encountering the human immune system, is driving a wave of cases across the country. The size of that wave is unclear because most people are testing at home or not testing at all. (Achenbach, 7/10)
The New York Times:
What Are The Symptoms Of Omicron Subvariants BA.4 And BA.5?
Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Cleveland Clinic, said people tend to experience upper respiratory symptoms “from the vocal cords to the tip of the nose.” Anecdotally, he said, he has seen more patients with painful sinus congestion and severe sore throats who have tested positive for Covid-19 while BA.4 and BA.5 have been circulating. Some of them thought they had strep throat because they were in so much pain, he said. (Blum, 7/6)
CIDRAP:
Wastewater Surveillance Tool Detects SARS-CoV-2 Variants Earlier, Cheaper
Scientists at Scripps Research Institute and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have developed a wastewater surveillance tool that—with just 2 teaspoons of raw sewage—can identify the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in a population and detect new variants of concern up to 2 weeks before clinical sequencing can. (7/8)
