Corona Pandemic Expert: Omikron subtype BA.2 could prolong Omikron wave
Berlin/Copenhagen · According to a new study, the personal risk of infection with the Omikron subtype BA.2 is more than twice as high as with the previously predominant subtype BA.1. Especially in schools and day-care centres, this could have consequences.
Experts believe that a sub-variant of Omikron, which is probably even easier to transmit, could lead to a prolongation of the current wave of infections.
"BA.2 will also take hold in our country," wrote immunologist Carsten Watzl on Twitter on Monday. This could prolong the Omikron wave. The secretary general of the German Society for Immunology was referring to a study from Denmark on the Omikron subtype BA.2 that has not yet been peer-reviewed by external experts.
According to the study, the personal risk of infection with BA.2 is more than twice as high as with subtype BA.1. This applies both within the group of the unvaccinated, as well as in people with basic protection and in those who have been boostered. The risk of passing on the virus is also greatly increased in infected unvaccinated people, but not in vaccinated and boostered people, the study says. BA.1 has been prevalent in Germany so far, but BA.2 has also been found.
Vaccinations would also have an effect against infection, transmission and severe disease with the emergence of BA.2, albeit reduced compared to earlier variants, the researchers write. The higher BA.2 susceptibility and transmissibility in the unvaccinated is likely to lead to an even further increase in transmission in unvaccinated children, for example in schools and day-care centres, they note.
For the preprint, researchers in Denmark looked at BA.1 and BA.2 infections in households. They looked at about 8,500 so-called primary cases at the end of December and beginning of January. "We conclude that Omikron BA.2 is inherently much more transmissible than BA.1," they conclude. BA.2 also has immune escape properties that further reduce the vaccine's protective effect against infection, it said. However, the transmission by vaccinated persons with breakthrough infections is not increased.
According to the latest weekly report of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the proportion of BA.2 in Germany "remains very low" at 2.3 percent in the second week of the year (week before: 1.4 percent). The RKI writes about the subtype: "Internationally, it is observed that BA.2 is spreading more strongly than BA.1". This applies to Denmark and the United Kingdom, for example. Clinically and epidemiologically, however, there are still no reliable findings for other characteristics.
Original text: (dpa)
Translation: Mareike Graepel
