10 points: BA.2.75 sub-variant detected in India, what scientists know — and do not know

OMICRON SUB-VARIANT DETECTED IN INDIA: A SARS-CoV-2 sub-variant, known by its codename “BA.2.75”, has been detected in various countries including India, World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. On Wednesday, India reported 16,159 new COVID cases over a 24-hour period, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported June 6.

BA.2.75 UNDER CLOSE WATCH: The emergence of BA.2.75, a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant, has alerted epidemiologists. It is being closely watched by the WHO, through the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE), whose members pour through sequencing data from across the world.

RECOVERIES: According to India’s health ministry, 15,394 COVID patients recovered from the disease during the period. This takes the total number of recoveries since the onset of the pandemic in the country to 4,29,07,327. The rate of recovery currently is 98.53 per cent.

BA.2.75 DETECTED IN 10 COUNTRIES: The sub-variant is reportedly turning up increasingly in genetic sequencing samples from people who tested positive of SARS-CoV-2. Scientists are currently trying to figure out if BA.2.75 leads to greater ability to infect people who had prior infection, or those who are vaccinated. During the briefing, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan mentioned the emergence of BA.2.75. "First reported from India and then from about 10 other countries," she said.

30% RISE IN COVID CASES IN PAST 2 WEEKS: Globally, COVID-19 cases have increased nearly 30% over the past 2 weeks — after a decline new cases for seven consecutive weeks, the WHO reported. "Four out of six of the WHO sub-regions saw cases increase in the last week," World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said is press briefing Wednesday. In the last two weeks, with over 2.6 million cases reported last week (28 June – 4 July 2021), marking a slight increase in new weekly cases, WHO reported.

WHAT SCIENTISTS KNOW ABOUT BA.2.75 SUB-VARIANT: WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said there are still limited sequences available of the sub-variant to analyse. This sub-variant seems to have a few mutations on the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein. RBD is a key part of the virus that attaches itself to the human receptor.

WHAT IS NOT KNOWN ABOUT BA.2.75 SUB-VARIANT: WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said the health agency’s specialists are keeping a close watch on the sub-variant. “It's still too early to know if this sub-variant has properties of additional immune evasion or indeed of being more clinically severe. We don't know that," she told a global media briefing from Geneva.

PANDEMIC IS NOT OVER YET: Given the recent spikes in cases and the rise of new sub-variants, it's too early to say the coronavirus pandemic is over, said World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. WHO Incident Manager COVID-19 Abdi Mahamud said that now is not the time to declare that the pandemic is over. “We’re still in the midst of the pandemic and the virus has a lot of force left. So whether it is the BA.4 or BA.5 or BA.2.75, the virus will continue. It does what it does good," Dr Mahamud said.

MASKING ADVISED: WHO’s Dr Mahamud added that people and communities must continue to wear masks, avoid crowds and ensure that the most vulnerable and high-risk population is protected.

BA.4 AND BA.5: In Europe and America, BA.4 and BA.5 are driving waves. Meanwhile, global COVID deaths have declined, as weekly deaths continued to decrease, with under 54,000 deaths reported in the past week, a 7% decline as compared to the previous week. This is the lowest weekly mortality figure since early October 2020, according to WHO.