LONDON: Sub-genealogy of BA.2 from the Omicron variant of Covid-19, which is classified as a variant in an investigation in the UK, spreads much faster than the original BA.1 strain but also shows higher vaccine protection, health authority said.
The British Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said that BA.2 had an increase in growth rate compared to BA.1 in all British regions where there were quite a number of cases to assess.
On January 24, 1,072 BA.2 cases that were genitally confirmed have been identified in the UK and all assessments remain a relatively low preliminary case number.
“While the growth rate can be estimated to be too high in the initial analysis of the new variant, clear growth benefits are currently substantial,” said UKHSA.
Experts say their analysis of routine contact search data shows that transmission tends to be higher among contact ba.2 cases in households around 13.4 percent compared to other omicron case contacts in the period December 27, 2008, 2021, until 11 January 2022.
Related preliminary assessments did not find evidence of differences in the effectiveness of vaccines against symptomatic disease for BA.1.
After two doses, the effectiveness of vaccines each is 9 percent and 13 percent for BA.1 and BA.2, after 25+ weeks.
This increased to 63 percent for BA.1 and 70 percent for BA.2 at 2 weeks after the third vaccine.
“We now know that BA.2 has an increase in growth rates that can be seen in all regions in the UK.
We have also learned that BA.2 has a slightly higher level of secondary attack than BA.1 in the household,” said Dr.
Susan Hopkins , Head of Medical Advisor for UKHSA.
“Although hospitalization and death remains low, cases are still high in several regions and some age groups are important so that we continue to act carefully because restrictions are appointed,” he said.
In its newest update on omicron data, UKHSA noted that the total number of intensive care units (ICU) has declined from time to time, but where data available with Omicron has increased from 9 percent to more than 50 percent in most of the last week.
It was also found that even though there was a rapid increase in Covid-19 infection between the elderly in maintenance homes during December 202, in line with the case of rising in the community, there had been no related improvement in the hospital.
UKHSA said his findings showed a wave of omicron infection at this time it was impossible to cause a major surge in severe disease in the home population of treatment with a high level of vaccine coverage and / or natural immunity.
The latest analysis came at the end of the week where all the English parts began to roll back the strict sidewalks of Covid-19 locking, such as the prohibition of nightclubs and work from home direction.