Omicron Sub-variant BA-2.75 Found in Delhi likely to cause a COVID wave, warn Experts

A new sub-variant of COVID’s Omicron variant has been detected in Delhi on Wednesday, according to ANI. The new sub-variant, BA-2.75, has been identified from the study of 90 samples sent for genome sequencing. The new sub-variant is more transmissible and it can even infect those with antibodies, according to health experts.

The new sub-variant is likely to cause a surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi. India recorded 16,561 new cases of COVID-19 and 49 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

Dr Suresh Kumar of LNJP Hospital, Delhi, said that the new sub-variant has more transmissibility which infects even those with antibodies. “This new sub-variant also attacks people already having antibodies and also those who have taken the COVID vaccines in their body,” added Dr Kumar, reported ANI.

So far the World Health Organization (WHO) has categorised it as

a variant of interest. The global health agency is currently monitoring it but there is no evidence yet. As reported by The Conversation, as BA 2.75 is

becoming more common in India, it has been nicknamed scariant. The sub-variant is also known as Centaurus.

Physician and scientist Eric Topol on July 19 had tweeted about

the same with the COVID data from India. “BA.2.75 is a scariant. It is not

spreading anywhere besides a couple of provinces in India without BA.5 to

compete with. There will be other new variants to be concerned about but it

doesn’t look like this is one of them,” he wrote.

Topol laid down the characterisation of the BA-2.75 variant. He

mentioned that the virus is not more immune evasive than BA-5, it has modest

resistance to bebtelovimab, and it also has higher receptor binding affinity

than other Omicron sub-variants. He also mentioned that it is still unclear if

it can compete with BA-5 globally.

Health experts across the globe have mixed opinions on this,

while some see it as a potential threat due to its immune evasive nature, others

consider it not so dangerous.

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