UK: The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA), designated a sub-lineage of the dominant and highly transmissible Omnicron coronavirus variant as a variant under investigation. “The Omnicron variant sub lineage known as BA.2 has been designated as a variant under investigation”, tweeted UKHSA.
Until now Britain has sequenced 426 cases of BA.2 sub-lineage. UKHSA has reported 40 countries about BA.2 sequences including India and said that there was uncertainty around the significance of the changes to the viral genome. “It is the nature of the viruses to evolve and mutate, so it’s to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge”, said Dr. Meera Chand, incident director at the UKHSA.
In Denmark, BA.2. has grown rapidly and accounts for 20% of overall COVID-19 cases in the country. Initial investigations done by the Statens Serum Institute reveal no difference in hospitalization between the two Omnicron variants. Earlier this week British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a rollback of strict COVID-19 restrictions.