Experts fear the new variant — called BA.2.75 — may have the ability to spread rapidly and evade immunity obtained by existing vaccines and previous COVID-19 infection. At present, it remains unclear whether BA.2.75 causes more serious disease than others ommicron variants such as BA.5, which is currently prominent around the world. BA.2.75 was first identified in India, but has since been found in ten other countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany and the United States.
Virologist Dr Matthew Binnicker of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said: “It is still very early for us to draw too many conclusions.
“But it seems that – especially in India – the transmission rates are showing some kind of exponential increase.”
In fact, according to researchers in New Delhi, BA.2.75 has been spotted in several distant states in India, where it seems to be spreading faster than other variants.
Whether the new variant will manage to surpass and replace BA.5 remains to be seen.
However, he explained that the virus has a host of mutations that set it apart from previous omicron variants — some in areas related to the spike protein Covid uses to bind to cells that could make the virus more effective.
Infectious disease specialist Shishi Luo works for Helix, a company that specializes in providing viral sequence information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US.
According to Dr. Luo is the fact that BA.2.75 has been spotted in many parts of the world — including those with relatively low levels of viral surveillance — “an early indication that it’s spreading.”
In addition, virologist Dr. Gagandeep Kang of Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India, noted that growing concerns about BA.2.75 emphasize the need to support both genetic analysis of the virus and patient monitoring.
She said: “It is important that surveillance is not a start-stop strategy.”
READ MORE: UK Covid cases on the rise across Britain: Calls for lockdown
Surveillance isn’t the only public health measure calling for more efforts.
In the UK, official data has shown that 2.7 million people had COVID-19 last week – an increase of 18 percent from the week before.
In the House of Lords, Health Minister Lord Kamall told colleagues that if the rising number of cases were to put too much pressure on the already underdeveloped health system, “it is clear that measures need to be put in place”.
Several experts have called for the return of free lateral flow testing, face coverings and a return to outdoor mixing.
Virologist Steve Griffin said: “We are experiencing plateaus of infection between waves that are much higher than we ever had last summer simply because of the lack of measures.
“Leaving vaccinations to tackle the pandemic alone just won’t work and we need to do more in the longer term to build resilience to such a high level of infections.
“This means no lockdowns, but learning to proactively live with the virus, rather than passively ignoring and rejecting this infection, which remains a public health problem regardless of some wishes or personal choices.”
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According to the experts, it could take several more weeks to determine whether the latest mutation of omicron will significantly change the trajectory of the pandemic.
In the meantime, Dr. Luo, however, that BA.2.75 is another reminder that COVID-19 is constantly evolving and spreading.
She concluded: “We would like to return to pre-pandemic life, but we still need to be careful.
“We have to accept that we are not living with a higher level of risk than we used to be.”