On the way to a nightmare scenario or a negligible development of the strain that is spreading in the world?
The Ministry of Health announced last night (Thursday) that it is monitoring the "BA2 variant that is evolving alongside the omicron (BA1)".
On the same variant, a subspecies of the infamous Omicron, there have been various publications for more than a month.
Corona Commissioner Prof. Zarqa warns: "I can not guarantee that there will be no closure" // Photo: GPO
The first time the subspecies was detected was on November 27 in South Africa, the country from which the omicron came.
The British Guardian reported in December the same "latent version" of the omicron that could not be identified by PCR, but only by genetic testing.
That is, it is possible to say whether the person is infected, but it is not possible to tell whether he is carrying the specific subspecies or the delta virus.
According to the American site ABC10 San Diego, laboratories that can diagnose the presence of the original omicron within two to three days will be able to detect the sub-strain in just two to three weeks.
The difference is due to a certain genetic change in the genetic structure between the sub-strain and "Omicron BA1".
Dr. David Smith, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of San Diego, warned that this could affect physicians who have to decide whether to change treatment, as certain medications are more appropriate for those carrying the Delta.
Emergency room in Calcutta, India, Photo: API
PCR tests in the US, Photo: EPI
However, hope for a solution to this problem comes from South Korea where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KDCA) announced in late December that researchers had succeeded in developing a PCR test that would diagnose the subspecies within "three to four hours of infection".
Back to the AMN report, according to the researchers, "variant BA2 has many mutations common to BA1 (the original omicron; NC)".
However, the researchers added that according to the information known so far it has 28 different amino acids relative to the omicron, which may cause it to have different properties.
There is therefore a fear among scientists around the world that it is more violent and perhaps more contagious.
However, according to a health ministry statement last night, "at this point there is no evidence that he is behaving differently from the omicron."
The report on the PCR kit being developed in South Korea
According to researchers at the National Intelligence and Information Center, "the variant has been detected in many countries, including Denmark and Sweden - where it has reached more than 10% of the flooring.
Calcutta is the largest city in the West Bengal state of India. The city itself is home to about five million people and the population of the entire metropolis (including the suburbs) is about 15 million.
It is important to note that the development of different variants and mutations is natural in the plague.
Most of those incarnations of the corona virus are not fundamentally different from each other and do not constitute a "game-changer" as was the case with the omicron.
Also, there are experts who believe that the omicron is the "finishing chord" of the corona plague, as only a former senior official in the Australian health system estimated earlier this month.
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