COVID-19 Live Updates: Don't Worry, BA.2 Lineage Can Prolong Omicron Wave But Won't Cause Fresh COVID Surge

What makes the variant a cause of worry? BA.2 can readily overcome immunity gained from the vaccines and previous COVID infections with some other variants.

As scientists raise an alarm over the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron, which is spreading rapidly globally, some studies have suggested that the sister lineage of the highly mutated Omicron variant might prolong the current COVID wave but won't necessarily lead to a fresh surge of Covid-infections. According to the latest data by the World Health Organisation (WHO), BA.2 lineage has already spread to Denmark, the Philippines, and South Africa, and it is also currently the dominant variant which accounts for roughly one in five new Omicron cases recorded across the world.

What makes the variant a cause of worry? experts say that looking at the variant it is clear that the BA.2 is probably the result of it being more transmissible than BA.1. They also added that the BA.2 can readily overcome immunity gained from the vaccines and previous COVID infections with some other variants, however, it is not much better than BA.1 at doing so.

Talking about who is at the highest risk of catching this variant, experts stated that unvaccinated people are at heightened risk of BA.2 infection, and there is a high risk of re-infection as well. "We have BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3. It's really quite incredible how Omicron, the latest variant of concern has overtaken Delta around the world," Maria Van Kerkhove, Covid-19 technical lead at the WHO, said at a briefing on Thursday. Follow this space for all the latest updates on COVID-19.