Of💖ficials in America’s New York state announced earlier this week that two new Omicron sub-variants, named BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1, had become dominant coronavirus strain🗹s in parts of the state.
The New York health department reported that infection rates in central New York, where these strains have become♓ dominant, had for weeks been at least twice the state’s average.
The mutations that these two sub-variants have may help SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, to enter human cells faster and evade immunity from vaccin🦄es and previous infections, according to Andy Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkin﷽s Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The emergence of new variants or sꦺub-variants in itself is not an issue of concern but the presence of mutations in some of these emergin𝓰g strains that would give the virus an edge is of concern.
What are variants and sub-variants of a virus?
All viruses evolve and acquire mu♚tations, which lead to the emergence of “variants” of a virus.
These🌠 “variants” further split to form sub-lineages called “sub-variants”. The Delta variant that drove India’s deadly second wave is known to have up to 200 sub-va🎐riants.
Not all mutations these variants (and sub-variants) have are of concern. 🀅However, some mutations allow the virus to spread more effectively, such as in the case of Omicron variant, whereas some mutations lead to increased severity of disease, such as in the case of Delta variant.
It is these kinds of mut♉ations that ar𓄧e of concern.
New Omicron sub-variants in New York spread faster but with no increased severity
The two new Omicron sub-variants are spreading 23-27 per cent faster than the original BA.2 Omicron ﷺvariant, according to New✱ York state officials cited by The Washington Post.
The increased transmissibi𒈔꧑lity has not so far coincided with increased severity of disease.
“At this time, there is no evidence of increased disease severity by these sub-variants, though the department is closely monitoring for any changes,” sai🌱d the New York health department in a statement this week.
Johns Hopkins’ Pekosz, cited above in the piece, said, “When🎉ever we see those mutations, we're a little bit concerned, but it's hard right now to rea💙lly estimate how big of a concern those variants will be.”
As for cases, the two sub-variants in March a🦩ccounted for over 70 per cent of reported infections in central New ꦉYork. The number for April so far is 90 per cent.
Do you need to be worried about these new strains?
These two sub-variants have been discovered in five countries besides the US, according to NPR. These countries are – Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Israel an๊d Luxembourg.
In New York, where these sub-variants are concentrated, The Post has noted that inf🤪ections are approaching levels previously seen during last year’s Delta-fuelled wave.
The curre🥀nt spike is, however, manageable, according to experts. It is also expected as now most restrictions, such as mask requirements, have been lifted.
Earlier, another sub-variant called XE was found that had increased traꦆnsmissibility.
Experts had at the time said that XE – which should apply to the two strains in New York as well – emerged very quickly after massive Omicron waves, meaning that it would face a str🌺ong wall of immunity among people – either fr🍒om vaccination or from previous vaccination. This would mean that even if it spreads among the population, the severity is expected to be low.
Therefore, while experts and officials are tracking the disease trajectory, the emergence of these two strains in Ne🏅w York is not a subject of immediate concern as no particular rise in severity of disease is observed so far.
