The BA.2 variant of the omicron strain of the coronavirus is not more severe than the original, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday (22).
Based on a sample of people from different countries, “we are not seeing a difference in the severity of BA.1 compared to BA.2,” Maria Van Kerkhove, a senior WHO official, said in an online question and answer session.
“So it has a similar level of severity with regard to the risk of hospitalization. And this is really important because many countries have had a substantial amount of circulation, both BA.1 and BA.2,” he said.
Van Kerkhove, who leads the technical arm of the WHO Covid-19 response team, was reporting on the findings of a committee of experts who tracked the evolution of the virus.
These findings will come as a relief to countries such as Denmark, where the BA.2 variant of the omicron has been widely circulated.
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