Covid-19: subvariants discovered around the world launch new alerts

While some increase the capacity and survival of the virus, others facilitate viral dissemination (Credit: Reproduction/Pixabay)

The evolution of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the pathogen responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, continues to be the focus of researchers around the world, with the discovery of several new mutations of the virus – while some increase the capacity and Other virus survival facilitate viral spread, despite the presence of antibodies to other variants of the coronavirus.

China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Monday that it had sequenced a new subvariant of the Ómicron variant, according to the state-run Global Times newspaper – the subvariant, labeled BA.1.1., does not match. to other types of coronavirus sequenced in China or reported to the global variants database, and was found in a mild case of Covid-19 in Suzhou, a city near Beijing.

+ New variant of covid-19, from Ômicron, is discovered in China

Also in the UK a new subvariant of Omicron called XE was identified. According to the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA), hundreds of people in the UK have so far been infected with XE, a tiny fraction of the total Covid-19 infections in the country. It is too early to say whether XE is more transmissible than the other subvariants of Ômicron, although it has been detected outside the UK, in Thailand. The World Health Organization (WHO) has assured that a hybrid of the two variants of Omicron – BA.1 and BA.2 – may be the most transmissible variant so far and is estimated to spread 10% more easily than BA.2 .

In March, a new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv described mutations found in the SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 variant in Hong Kong and New Zealand. Among the various SARS-CoV-2 variants identified, five have been designated Variants of Concern (VOCs), including the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron variants.

Three subvariants of Ômicron have already been reported, including BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3. BA.1 is characterized by the R346K spike mutation and has a BA.1.1 underline. who, together with the parent BA.1, was responsible for the majority of Ómicron cases in the current phase of the pandemic.