UK Medical authorities revealed a new subspecies of Omicron-strain Coronavirus Ba.2 in the country, which, according to preliminary analyzes, extends to even higher speed. This was reported on Friday to the United Kingdom Health Safety Agency (UKHSA), writes TASS.
While the country has recorded 426 cases of infection with the new strain, of which 146 fall on London, another 97 cases – to the South-East England region. It is noted that for the first time the infection of BA.2 happened in the UK on December 6, 2021. Against this background, the strain was assigned the status of the “studied version”. If the growth of morbidity continues in the coming weeks, then BA.2 risks being classified as “causing anxiety”, this category in the kingdom includes strains “Oomikron”, “Delta”, “Alpha”, “Gamma” and “Beta”.
According to the British authorities, the whole strain was seen in 40 countries, and the total number of cases of infection in the world exceeds 8 thousand, while determine the place of origin of the virus is not possible. At the same time, it is known that the first cases of infection Ba.2 were recorded in the Philippines. The overwhelming majority of cases are 6.4 thousand – revealed in Denmark. Among other countries where more than 100 cases of infection with a new strain are recorded – India (530), Sweden (181) and Singapore (127).
“viruses to evolve and mutate viruses, so we expected that new options will appear during a pandemic. Our continuing genomic observation allows us to determine them and assess their degree of significance,” said UkHSA.