Omicron still dominant in Italy, with an estimated prevalence of 100% on December 13th. The covid subvariant Ba.5 is largely predominant and a share of omicron/omicron recombinants equal to 3%. These are the results of the rapid survey conducted by the ISS and the Ministry of Health, together with the regional laboratories and the Bruno Kessler Foundation.
There Omicron 5 subvariant dubbed ‘Cerberus’ runs in Italy and doubles its share. “Within the sub-lineages of BA.5, similarly to what was reported in other countries, this survey highlights a significant increase in BQ.1.n (the so-called ‘Cerberus’) and equal to 64.1% of the total samples BA.5”, while in the previous survey it was 30.7%, explain the authors of the quick survey. (continued)
In total, all the Regions and autonomous provinces and a total of 104 regional laboratories and the Military Health Laboratory participated in the survey, for a total of 1570 samples. Ba.5 remains largely predominant, with a national prevalence of 90.6% (91.5% in the previous survey, dated 8 November 2022), with regional frequencies exceeding 77.3%. The number of Ba.5 sub-lineages circulating in Italy is stable: 100 compared to 112 in the previous survey. Ba.4 continues to decline, with a prevalence of 1.95% to 0.3% in this survey. In the family of sub-lineages of Ba.5, similarly to what was reported in other countries, this survey shows a significant increase in Cerberus and equal to 64.1% (against 30.7% in the previous survey), out of the total samples Ba.5. Bf.7, a sublineage of Ba.5, accounts for 9.6% of the sequences analyzed in this survey (compared to 14.7% in the previous survey).
Xbb, a recombinant reported to be highly transmissible and with mutations associated with immune evasion, was identified in 36 versus 38 sequences identified in the previous investigation. Among the 95 Ba.2s, 25 sub-lineages have been identified, in addition to the parental Ba.2 lineage. We note the presence of 75 sequences attributable to Ba.2.75 (the so-called ‘Centaurus’) and related sub-lineages.
The BQ.1 variant, the ISS recalls when presenting the results of the flash survey, “is attracted internationally due to the presence of additional mutations compared to BA.5, such as R346T, in the sequence encoding the spike protein, showing a significant advantage of growth compared to other variants”.
Specifically, the Dec. 13 rapid survey finds that among 1,382 BA.5 sequences, 100 sublineages were identified, in addition to the BA.5 parental lineage. A total of 886 sequencings were found to be associated with the Cerberus family, i.e. one of the 37 lineages of BQ.1. And among these, BQ.1.1 was the most frequent (490).
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