‘Son of Omicron’ reported in Australia, ‘stealthy’ Covid-19 variant said to be more contagious
January 30, 2022 | Joshua Nybo
A new variant of Covid-19, dubbed the “Son of Omicron,” has reached Australia and has been alleged to be spreading like wildfire.
This new strain, the BA.2 subvariant of Covid-19, has already made the rounds in Europe, and in Denmark has made up 45% of all Covid-19 cases. Its key feature appears to be the difficulty of detection, as a diagnosis can only be confirmed through lab analysis, instead of a simple PCR test.
The Omicron “parent” variant, B.1.1.529, was comparatively easy to detect, since it has an S-gene drop out (unlike the Delta variant), so PCR tests are easily able to detect it. The new subvariant does not have that same genetic drop out, making it significantly harder to detect, especially in a reasonable and convenient time frame.
However, despite the increased virulence and contagiousness that seems to be the hallmark of Omicron variants, the new subvariant does not appear to be more lethal than Covid-19’s base rate (which can be as little as 1 percent or can spike to over 18 percent in a given country, depending on average access to quality healthcare), at least not so far.
The BA.2 subvariant got its nickname, “Son of Omicron,” from a University of Melbourne epidemiologist, Professor Nancy Baxter during an interview by host Karl Stefanovic on Thursday’s edition of Today Show on Australia’s Nine network:
“There is a variant they call the ‘son of Omicron.’ It’s more of a cousin, it’s a variant related to Omicron.”
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