While the Omicron mutant continues to spread rapidly in most parts of the world, especially in the European continent, a number of scientists are monitoring the new mutant of the Corona virus, which they called “BA.2”, which is a new derivative of the Omicron mutant, according to a report published by “The Scientist” magazine. The Scientist, who reported that it spreads somewhat faster than Omicron.
It is reported that preliminary information indicated that It does not appear in the PCR test So some have gone on to call it “the invisible omicron”.
The Omicron mutant was responsible for the faster spread of Corona in Europe, Asia and the United States, during the last period.
expressive
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the highest health authority in the United States, the new version of the BA.2 Omicron mutant is spreading rapidly in some European countries, such as Denmark. Cases of “BA.2” were detected in California and Texas, in the United States.
“Of all the corona mutant, Omicron was the fastest spreading,” Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, of the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago, told CNN.
Scientists in India were able to document some differences between the omicron mutant and the derived mutant “BA.2”, as there is a slight difference in the “shape” of the protein.
Cameron Wolf, an infectious disease expert at Duke University School of Medicine, told NBC News: “You might say they are like brothers, from the same family, where there are slight differences, but most of the genes are similar. in both.”
And Gabriel Leung, dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, believes that “a mutant derivative of Omicron may spread faster than the original mutant, by 35%.”
And the scientists say they don’t yet know “how differences might affect Omicron’s behaviour”.
And if the mutant has an omicron advantage that It does not cause serious symptoms that require hospitalizationHowever, in contrast, it has more than 30 mutations in the protein spike protein on the surface of the virus (Spike protein), which lost much of the effectiveness of the vaccines that were designed according to the structure of this protein in the original strain.
expressive
According to James Crowe, a professor at the American “Vanderbilt University” Center for Vaccines, the sub-mutant of Omicron “BA.2”, which is difficult to monitor by PCR test, “The virulence of this mutant is not yet clearInsufficient data were available to indicate whether this variant is more resistant to approved vaccines or antibodies.
The Corona virus has killed at least 5,625,889 people in the world since it appeared in China in December 2019.
The United States recorded the highest number of deaths from the virus (876,066), followed by Brazil (624,413), India (491,700) and Russia (328,770).
The World Health Organization estimates that the total number of deaths may be twice as high.
