It has been more than two years that the whole world has been suffering from COVID-19. After every 4 to 5 months, a new variant has been found of COVID, and we are continuously struggling to prevent the transmission of any kind of COVID variant, either new or old. Recently, it has been reported that a new type of omicron variant has been found, named BA.2, which is also known as stealth omicron.
As per many researchers and reports, it has been analyzed that this new omicron BA.2 variant is highly transmissible, and the number of cases in China and the UK is increasing. Many epidemiologists believe BA.2 omicron has the potential to reverse the downward trend in COVID cases in the U.S., although they doubt it would result in a significant new increase.
What are the stealth omicron symptoms?
Dr. Michael Angarone, one of the doctors of the Chicago Department of Public Health, has stated that “I don’t know if we, right now, know the particular features that are distinct for BA.2 versus BA.1. I mean, for BA.1, we knew that it was mostly an upper respiratory-type infection rather than the lower respiratory infections that can lead toward pneumonia and further and greater complications.”
Here is the list of new omicron BA.2 variant symptoms.
- Fatigue
- Congestion
- Cough
- Runny nose
These are some of the primary symptoms of the new omicron variant. Many doctors and medical researchers opined that the symptoms of new BA.2 omicron are similar to many other COVID infections. There are no new symptoms that have been identified till now. However, the transmission rate of omicron BA.2 is relatively high.
WHO statement regarding omicron BA.2 variant
“Now, among all subvariants, BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1. However, there is no difference in terms of severity. The genomic sequence of BA.2 is vastly different from BA.1, which suggests that their virological characteristics will also be different.” This is what WHO stated when its team first noted that BA.2 omicron has been spreading much faster than BA.1. WHO found no variance in severity.
However, the virological characteristics of the omicron BA.2 variant are pretty different from BA.1. According to WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove, much research is underway to compare diverse sub-lineages of Omicron regarding their severity, vaccination consequences, and transmissibility.
WHO also referred that all other variants of COVID, such as alpha, beta, and delta, remain to decline worldwide as the omicron variant hordes them out. It has been observed that last week among about 400,000 COVID-19 virus cases has been uploaded to the primary virus database in the world, 98% of cases were about omicron variants.
Is the stealth omicron responding to vaccines?
Some doctors have stated that BA.2 was almost entirely resilient to some treatments of a monoclonal antibody used to treat coronavirus infection. Omicron BA.2 variant is more harmful to individuals who have been affected before with COVID-19. Because BA.2 omicron has a greater adequate procreation number and significant immune resilience, it is clear that its proliferation will pose a serious threat to public health shortly.
Therefore, even though BA.2 omicron still has not reached your country, be extra careful, and please do not drop the extra safety measurements just because the situation is stable now. Kindly maintain all the rules and regulations to prevent the spread of any COVID variant.
