Geneva: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron is likely to spread globally, though it’s not yet clear if it can reinfect those infected with the earlier strain of Omicron.
According to Maria Van Kerkhove, Covid-19 technical lead of the global health agency, the BA.2 subvariant, which is more contagious than the currently dominant BA.1 version, will likely become more common, reported CNBC.
“BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 so we expect to see BA.2 increasing in detection around the world,” Van Kerkhove said during a question and answer session live streamed on WHO’s social media platforms Tuesday.
Van Kerkhove said that the WHO is monitoring BA.2 to see if the subvariant causes an increase of new infections in countries that saw a rapid increase and then a sharp decline in omicron cases.
While research is still ongoing, there’s no indication of a difference in the severity of infections caused by either subvariant, she noted.
