Omicron Subvariant 'BA.2' Rapidly Spreading in South Africa... "Almost 100% Dominant Strain"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] On the 9th (local time), a South African genomic sequencing expert revealed that the subvariant 'BA.2' of the COVID-19 Omicron variant has become the dominant strain in South Africa, accounting for nearly 100% of cases.

Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatics professor who advises the government on pandemic response, posted on social media that "As expected, Omicron BA.2 has taken over South Africa, representing nearly 100% of the new genomic sequences," and asked, "What does this mean?"

He had previously reported on the 2nd of this month that BA.2 was rapidly spreading in South Africa and had been detected in 7 out of 9 provinces nationwide. A week later, BA.2 appears to have swept across the entire country.

BA.2 is called the 'Omicron stealth' because while standard PCR tests can detect COVID-19 infection, they do not easily distinguish this variant. It is known to spread faster than the original Omicron variant (BA.1), but does not cause more severe illness.

South Africa became the origin of the Omicron variant when it was reported in November last year, but by early January, the country had already passed the peak and was experiencing relatively low levels of infection. As of this date, South Africa has 3,628 new confirmed cases, with a positivity rate of 9.2% among those tested. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases of South Africa announced on social media that 213 deaths have occurred, including 22 in the previous 24 to 48 hours.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.