WHO sends new variant warning as Covid 'mutates and evolves' – pandemic 'not over'
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO) has issued a warning over the possibility for new Covid variants to arise, adding that the virus is "mutating" and "evolving".
Boris Johnson signals early end to Covid self-isolation laws
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan warned that the world is not yet out of the woods when it comes to Covid.
She said that there will be more variants in the future as the virus "evolves, mutates".
Ms Swaminatha added that "we are not at the end of the pandemic".
She was speaking to reporters n South Africa, where she was visiting vaccine manufacturing facilities with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
It comes a day after John Nkengasong, Director of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron is now the dominant variant in South Africa.
It has also been detected in at least six other African countries.
Mr Nkengasong said BA.2 had been identified in Mozambique, Senegal, Botswana, Mauritius, Kenya and Malawi.
He added that the sub-variant was likely to be present elsewhere but may not have been detected yet due to weaker surveillance systems.
Mr Nkengasongtold a media briefing: "We have data from South Africa that the BA.2 lineage has now become the predominant variant in South Africa."
Also known as the "stealth" Omicron variant, BA.2 has already been identified in Denmark and the UK.
Data from the CDC updated Tuesday shows that BA.2 made up four percent of sequenced cases in the US during the week of February 5.
Epidemiologist Eric Feigi-Ding wrote on Twitter: "Sub-variant surging.
"The BA.2 sublineage of Omicron has tripled in one week (in the US), dislodging the old Omicron from total dominance
"BA.2 now at 3.6 percent and climbing fast. Expect to be dominant by March."
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said Tuesday the global health agency is tracking four different versions of Omicron.
She said the BA.2 subvariant, which is more contagious than the currently dominant BA.1 version, will likely become more common.
Ms Vat Kerkhove added: “BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 so we expect to see BA.2 increasing in detection around the world."