Omicron BA.2 variant – also known as Omicron 2- is about 33% more contagious than the previously dominant BA.1, according to new research by scientists from Denmark, where BA.2 has expanded rapidly and is in mid-January the vast majority of new cases (82%).
BA.2 also appears to be more capable than BA.1 of infecting vaccinated people, even at booster doses, which means that it escapes better from vaccine immunity, but does not appear to cause more serious disease than BA .1 nor increase the risk of hospitalization. Also, vaccinated people are less likely – compared to those who are not vaccinated – to be infected with BA.2 and transmit it, as is the case with BA.1.
The study, which has not yet been published in a scientific journal and analyzed coronavirus infections in more than 8,500 Danish households, according to Reuters and Science, found that a person with BA.2 has an average of 33% higher chance of transmitting the coronavirus to others than someone with BA.1.
Researchers from the Statens Serum Institute, the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark concluded that “Omicron BA.2 is inherently more contagious than BA.1 and also possesses immunomodulatory properties that further reduce the protective efficacy of the vaccine. against this infection “.
“If you have been exposed to Omicron NE.2 in your home, you have a 39% chance of becoming infected in the next few days. “If, on the other hand, you were exposed to BA.1, the probability is 29%,” said lead researcher Frederic Plesner.
According to the Danish study, those vaccinated with three doses are three times more likely to be infected with BA.2 than with BA.1, those vaccinated with two doses are 2.5 times more likely to be infected with BA.2 in compared to BA.1, while the unvaccinated are 2.2 times more likely. Unvaccinated people are also 2.6 times more likely to transmit BA.2 to others than BA.1.
BA.1 still accounts for about 97% of Omicron cases worldwide, but BA.2 is constantly gaining ground in various countries, beyond Denmark, such as Britain, USA, Sweden, Norway, India, etc. In all, it has been detected in 57 countries so far, with the earliest occurrence on November 17 in South Africa.
The sudden upward trend of the most contagious BA.2 – which differs by about 40 mutations from BA.1 – has probably surprised scientists internationally. Although the general impression, for the time being, is that in the worst case it will extend the current wave of Omicron.
Epidemiologist Mark Zeller of the American Scripps Research Institute said: “At first I thought BA.1 had the upper hand and we would never hear of BA.2 again. But in the end things are definitely not like that. I am now quite sure that BA.2 is going to spread everywhere in the world, to sweep it and become a dominant variant in most countries, if not all “.
Scientists are trying to predict what the emergence of Omicron will mean for the pandemic in general, but this is currently difficult. However, Denmark, despite the outbreak of BA.2, appears quite confident that there is no risk of flooding of its hospitals with serious cases of Covid-19, so it is lifting almost all pandemic restrictions from 1 February
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