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#GeoHeadlines 03 AM | 01st February 2022 | #GeoNews

Algeria reports first case of stealth Omicron

Algeria on Sunday reported its first case of the new BA.2 subvariant of COVID-19, a subvariant of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The new case was reported by the General Director of Pasteur institute.

Experts believe the BA.2 subvariant, also known as the 'stealth omicron', could be more contagious than BA.1 – the original Omicron variant – but it doesn't appear to cause more severe COVID-19 disease.

According to preliminary calculations by Denmark's Statens Serum Institut (SSI), the new subvariant could be 1.5 times more infectious than its predecessor – although they've detected no difference in the risk of hospitalisation.

Algeria closed schools down earlier this month for 10 days amid the strong surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant.

The North African country registered 1,742 new COVID-19 infections with 10 deaths, bringing the total number to 249,310 cases and 6,555 fatalities.

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Science
New omicron variant BA.2 is spreading quickly

A new subtype of the omicron coronavirus variant is spreading in Denmark, the UK, India, Sweden and many other countries. The exact impact of the genome mutations is still unclear.

Illlustration: A globe in the form of a coronavirus

The omicron subtype BA.2 has been detected in more than 40 countries worldwide

We already know from the first omicron variant BA.1 that it is significantly more contagious than earlier coronavirus variants. Now a subtype, BA.2, has emerged. At least 400 people have been infected with it during the first 10 days of January in the United Kingdom, and it has already been detected in more than 40 other countries worldwide.
Most detections in Denmark

The PANGO directory of coronaviruses, which is regularly updated by scientists from the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Cambridge, lists Denmark as the most affected area, with 79% of the cases detected so far.

It is followed by the UK (6%), India (5%), Sweden (2%) and Singapore (2%). However, it should be noted that detection of the subtype depends on the ability of individual health care systems to sequence PCR tests.
Danger posed by omicron BA.2 still unknown

The rapid spread of the new subtype suggests it could be even more contagious than the original omicron variant. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has classified BA.2 as a "variant under surveillance."
A graph with the names of various coronavirus variants and where they first appeared

"It is the nature of viruses to evolve and mutate, so it's to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge as the pandemic goes on," said Meera Chand, incident director at UKHSA. "Our continued genomic surveillance allows us to detect them and assess whether they are significant."

For subtype BA.2, that analysis is still underway.

"So far, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether BA.2 causes more severe illness than omicron BA.1," said Chand.
Vaccination remains important in face of new mutations

British Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said the emergence of the new variant shows the continued importance of vaccination. "I encourage you to give yourself and your loved ones the best protection possible and get boosted now," he said.

French epidemiologist Antoine Flahault told the French news agency AFP: "What surprised us is the rapidity with which this sub-variant, which has been circulating to a great extent in Asia, has taken hold in Denmark."
Watch video 01:42
How dangerous is the new omicron sub-variant? Epidemiologist Tobias Kurth speaks to DW

So far, infections with subtype BA.2 have not been found to be more severe than with subtype BA.1.

For the moment, French Health Minister Olivier Veran is not too concerned about BA.2. "What we know for now is that [it] more or less corresponds to the characteristics that we know of omicron," he told AFP.
Scientists concerned with possible omicron-delta recombination

Speaking with Deutschlandfunk public radio, German virologist Christian Drosten of Berlin's Charite University Hospital stressed that combining one of the two omicron variants with delta could, however, lead to the development of an even more dangerous virus. Omicron has certain mutations on its surface protein, the so-called spike protein, with which it can more easily evade the body's immune defenses.

This trait could become particularly dangerous through recombination, which "carries the spike protein of the omicron virus to continue to enjoy that immune advantage, but has the rest of the genome of the delta virus," said Drosten.

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