WHEN WILL ALL OF THESE END? ANOTHER COVID VARIANT DETECTED
There has been a new version of the omicron variant that is starting to spread around the world, called BA.2 by scientists, but widely known as stealth omicron or stealth variant.
Stealth means movement that is quiet and careful in order not to be seen or heard. This gives us a vivid imagination of how this covid 19 variant behaves. The stealth omicron seeks to hide itself , this makes it harder to identify compared to BA.1, the original version of omicron.
BA.1 has features that made it easy to distinguish it from delta using a certain PCR test. BA.2 doesn’t have that same genetic make up, so on the test, it looks like delta.Stealth omicron also has mutations that could make it more contagious.
Those two traits combined – being more contagious and harder to detect – could make it spread even faster than the omicron we’ve seen practically take over the world this period.
Stealth omicron has already overtaken the original strain in Ddenmark while in the In the U.K., BA.2 cases are doubling every day.
Stealth omicron is either much faster to transmit or it evades immunity even more.
People are worried because it is so different than Omicron BA.1, it may escape current vaccines and Omicron BA.1-neutralizing antibodies. To this point, scientist are working to study the Omicron BA-2 virus to see whether current vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies neutralize it.
Whether BA.2, or any other Omicron subvariant or other SARS-CoV-2 variant, there is irrefutable evidence that existing vaccines are quite effective in protecting people against infection and highly effective in protecting people from developing severe disease or worst case scenario, dying upon SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Additionally, even if vaccinated, people should consider adhering to non pharmaceutical interventions, such as face masks, physical distancing, and handwashing, particularly when in crowded and/or high transmission environments.
The medical team
Cornerstone Hospital
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