The UK is exploring the underlining of the Ômicron variant

In early December, a team of researchers identified a subline of the Ômicron variant (BA.2), which this Friday (21) the UK Health Agency – the UK Health Security Agency – classified BA.2 as a “variant under investigation”. For now, this new “version” title variation is of no concern.

With the identification of BA.2, the original Ômicron variant became known as BA.1 in the Covit-19 database. About 2,093 classified BA.2 cases have been registered in an online database covering 22 countries, including the United Kingdom.

However, the evolution of Ômicron did not come as a surprise to authorities. “It’s natural for viruses to evolve and evolve, so it’s expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge.

Currently, it is known that the Ômicron substrain spreads more easily and is more resistant to vaccines. However, the data are still preliminary and more studies need to be done.

The researchers pointed out that the exact identification of the mutant variant is more complex, considering that the original Omicron can be identified by PCR selection that does not work with BA.2. In practice, this makes it difficult to trace the variance, which must be done in the traditional way.

Source: Reuters, Sky News