In Hyderabad, the first case of Omicron’s subvariant BA.4 was discovered. The sample has been sent to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) for confirmation. A person familiar with the situation confirmed on Thursday that an official announcement from INSACOG has yet to be made.
About BA.4 Omicron Variant:
New omicron sublineages discovered this month by South African scientists are likely to be able to evade vaccines and natural immunity from prior infections, according to the head of the gene sequencing units that produced a study on the strains.
“We expect it to cause reinfections and to evade some vaccines, because that’s the only way something can grow in South Africa, where we estimate that more than 90 percent of the population has some level of immune prowess.” South African Scientist studying the new variant said.
Dr. Dennis Cunningham, system medical director of infection control and prevention at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, said,” The omicron symptoms have remained fairly consistent. People are losing their senses of taste and smell less frequently. It’s a bad cold in many ways, with a lot of respiratory symptoms, stuffy nose, coughing, body aches, and fatigue “Dr. Dennis Cunningham, system medical director of infection control and prevention at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, said. He further added that coldlike symptoms experienced by vaccinated and boosted people as a result of an omicron infection are mostly the same regardless of subvariant.
Meanwhile, US scientists researching the new sublineages of this variant have stated that the main difference between the newer version of omicron and the one that previously swept through the US is transmissibility.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s Chief Medical Adviser, estimates that it is 50% more transmissible than the original omicron lineage.
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