WHO official urges to focus on studying 'stealth omicron'

WHO recommends that investigations into the characteristics of BA.2 should be prioritized, and Member States should analyze these independently to studies on BA.1, Spokesperson of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tarik Jasarevic told Report.

“BA.2 is being tracked as part of the Omicron variant. The BA.1 lineage has accounted for the majority of Omicron sequences reported to date but the BA.2 lineage is increasing in several countries. We are tracking this closely,” he said adding that BA.2 sequences have been submitted to GISAID from 57 countries to date, with the weekly proportion of BA.2 relative to other Omicron sequences rising to over 50% during the last six weeks in several countries.

“We are aware of emerging evidence that BA.2 may have a growth advantage over the BA.1 variant, and studies are ongoing on its capacity to evade the body’s immune response. We don’t yet know whether its severity differs from BA.1,” noted Jasarevic

BA.1 in some of the mutations, including in the spike protein. It does not have the S gene deletion, which means that it cannot be identified by a S-gene target failure in PCR tests.

“There are a lot of uncertainties around the future evolution of this pandemic, and WHO is considering a number of scenarios, but right now, we are very much still in the midst of the pandemic. Our priority is saving lives using all the tools at our disposal,” he noted.

Even if the virus is to become endemic, it doesn’t mean that is stops being dangerous or disruptive.

In the long run, we hope to bring this virus under our control, greatly reducing severe disease and death. With widespread vaccination, and wide availability and strategic use of the tools we have, we can do this.