A more infectious strain of the Omicron variant of Covid has been found in Russia. The National Consumer Health Watchdog of Russia has given this information. Kamil Khafeizov, head of genome research at the Central Research Institute for Epidemiology in Rospotrebnadzor, said two national laboratories fed the viral genomes of the BA.4 subline into the VGrus database. Both these samples were taken at the end of May for testing. Russian Scientist reported that the ba.2 subvariant is responsible for 95 percent of new cases of corona virus infection emerging in Russia.
Kamil Khafejov said several recently published studies have shown that the variants, known as ba.4 and ba.5, are slightly more contagious than the early forms of Omicron.
The head of the World Health Organization warned in May that Omicron sublines of ba.4 and ba.5 were exacerbating the disease in non-vaccinated countries, although Omicron’s ba.2 subvariant was still causing corona infection worldwide. remains the main reason.
In India too, infection with Omicron’s ba.4 and ba.5 sub-variants was confirmed a few days ago. The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) working on Genome Sequencing by the Union Health Ministry confirmed the infection of Omicron subvariants ba.4 and ba.5 in India. During genome sequencing, India’s first BA.4 sub-variant was detected in a 19-year-old girl from Tamil Nadu, while an 80-year-old male from Telangana was first detected with BA.
Infections from these 2 sub-variants were first reported in South Africa and some European countries. Preliminary studies suggest that the infectivity of these variants may be higher in people who have not been vaccinated or who do not have access to appropriate health care. According to experts, the new sub-variant of the corona does not cause a more severe infection than the original Omicron strain BA.2, although their infectious rate with the mutation remains high.
