Brazil has three confirmed cases of the Omicron lineage BA.2

The Ministry of Health confirmed three cases of the BA.2 lineage of the omicron variant, two in São Paulo and one in Rio de Janeiro.

“The Ministry of Health informs that the case identified in Rio de Janeiro is not the first of the subvariant in the country. Two other cases of the BA.2 lineage of the ômicron variant were reported by the state of São Paulo,” the note said.

As viruses mutate into new variants, they sometimes split or branch into sub-lineages. The most common so far of the omicron variant is the BA.1 lineage.

Now, more countries, mainly in Asia and Europe, are seeing an increase in cases caused by BA.2.

So far, BA-2 appears to be more transmissible than BA.1 and more capable of infecting vaccinated people, a Danish study has shown.

The study, which analyzed coronavirus infections in more than 8,500 Danish households between December and January, found that people infected with the BA.2 subvariant were approximately 33% more likely to infect others, compared with those infected with BA.1 .

In Brazil, the first case of the ômicron variant was announced on November 30th. The first death was confirmed on January 6 by the Health Department of the city of Aparecida de Goiânia, in the metropolitan region of Goiás.

The 68-year-old patient was hypertensive and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. According to the folder, he had received three doses of vaccine against Covid-19: two in the primary scheme and one as a booster.

The omicron is already predominant in the country, accounting for 96.16% of the sequenced samples, according to Our World in Data.

In January, the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, said that he has observed an increase in cases of Covid-19 in a scenario in which the ômicron variant is already prevalent in Brazil.

“Unfortunately, she [ômicron] is already prevalent here in Brazil, we are seeing an increase in cases. And as in other countries that have a strong campaign like ours [de vacinação]our expectation is that it will not have an impact on hospitalization and deaths,” he said.