The World Health Organization (WHO) tracks a new type of Omicron strain BA.2 not separately, but in a complex with other subspecies. About this “Lente.ru” said the representative of the organization.
According to WHO, as of January 7, on the main subspecies of Omikron, BA.1, accounts for about 98 percent of genetic sequences loaded into the international Gisaid database. The organization said that in varieties Ba.2, in contrast to BA.1 and Ba.3, there is no one of the characteristic of the strain of mutations – deletion, that is, the amino acid deposition of 69-70 in the S-protein gene.
Earlier it was reported that this is exactly the difference between Ba.2 from the “standard” versions of the strain makes it a kind of “invisible” for PCR tests. Instead of a positive result, testing system may issue failures.
Infection of this type of Ocomikron strain was found in three people in Sweden. In the academic laboratory of the Swedish city, Uppsala are not sure if a new subspecies can compete with the previous version of Omikron. New mutation was also found in South Africa, Australia, Great Britain, Israel, Denmark, Norway and India.