Covid concern again, new sub-variant in India; Cases on rapid rise globally, says WHO

GENEVA: A new sub-lineage BA.2.75 of the Omicron variant has been detected in countries including India, said the World Health Organization (WHO). “In countries like India, a new sub-lineage has been detected, which we’re following, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“On Covid-19, globally reported cases have increased nearly 30 per cent over the past two weeks. Four out of six of the WHO sub-regions saw cases increase in the last week. In Europe and America, BA.4 and BA.5 are driving waves”, he told the media.

.@doctorsoumya explains what we know about the emergence of a potential Omicron sub-variant [referred as BA.2.75] ⬇️#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/Eoinq7hEux

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) July 5, 2022

Meantime, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan has posted a video, about the new Covid variant, on Twitter. “There are still limited sequences available of the sub-variant to analyze. It's still too early to know if this sub-variant has properties of additional immune evasion or indeed of being more clinically severe. So we have to wait and see”, she said.