What is the Omicron Subvariant?

In South Africa, more variants of the Omicron strain BA.2 are emerging; however, there is no clear indication that BA.2 differs significantly from the original strain. This opinion was expressed on Friday by Michael Groum, a senior scientist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, as reported by Reuters.

According to the data he studied, BA.2 accounts for 23 percent of infections detected in January, while 75 percent are of the original Omicron strain. Since December, only 4 percent of 2,243 samples have been attributed to the newly identified subvariant, compared to 94 percent for the original strain.

The scientist stated that currently there are no indicators pointing to significant differences between Omicron and its subvariants.