New corona sub-variant arrived in Austria: "Prognosis difficult according to the current status"

Created: 09/23/2022, 13:47

By: Linus Prien

The new Corona subvariant BJ.1.

(icon picture).

© IMAGO/Christian Ohde

With the end of the summer, people are talking about the corona virus again.

In Austria, a commission of experts recently discussed a new subvariant.

Vienna - With increasingly lower temperatures, autumn and winter are announced in Germany.

For this reason, some are also concerned about the corona situation in the country.

Virologists in Germany are currently divided in their forecasts for the coming weeks and months.

In neighboring Austria, the GECKO Commission based there gave an overview of the corona situation in the country.

According to the

, among other things, a new omicron subvariant, which was first detected in Austria in early September, was the topic.

Corona virus: experts discuss new subvariant in Austria

The new subvariant BJ.1 is a variant of BA.2.10.1, which has a large number of additional mutations on the spike protein: "It is currently still unclear to what extent BJ.1 can circumvent immune protection better due to the particularly large number of new mutations." , says the virologist Andreas Bergthaler, who is also a member of the GECKO Commission.

The expert continued: "The prognosis for the further spread of BJ.1 is difficult according to the current status." As of now, the omicron variant is not widespread internationally and BJ.1 is not dominant in Austria.

Corona vaccination: mRNA vaccinations as the most mature technology

At the moment, an increase in the number of cases among five to 14-year-olds can be observed in Austria, as the

continues

reported.

At the same time, however, there is a certain increase in all age groups.

So far, however, no clear explanation has been found for these numbers: "It is still unclear to what extent the increase in the number of cases can be attributed to changed testing behavior, the end of the holidays or epidemiological reasons," said the GECKO Commission.

Furthermore, the experts of the GECKO Commission praised the mRNA vaccines as the most mature technology.

The vaccine can be produced quickly and can be quickly adapted to new corona variants.

For this reason, mRNA vaccines will probably remain the most important technology in immunization against Covid 19.

Corona virus: The coming winter could be decisive for future corona rules

Ultimately, the Commission looked to the future.

The coming winter could act as an "indicator" for the future rules for dealing with the corona virus in Austria: "Whether the Covid-19 vaccination will only be necessary for the general population before the cold season in the future or whether several vaccinations per person will continue From today's point of view, it is not possible to say with certainty, since the appearance of new virus variants and the resulting changes in the effectiveness of the vaccination cannot be estimated," explained vaccination expert Herwig Kollaritsch.

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Older citizens and others with an increased risk of a severe course of the disease could therefore need several vaccinations per season.

Not least because this also protects against long-Covid diseases.