The new variants of coronavirus in circulation currently

Subject: Science

Section: Biotechnology

Context:

The country’s current surge in Covid-19 cases is because of the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron — which drove the third wave in January, along with BA.1 — and another sub-variant that has branched off from it, called BA.2.38.

The new variants and current surge in cases:

The biggest difference between the current surge and the one in January is that there is no cluster formation with any of the emerging sub-variants.
Delhi reported its first couple of cases of the BA.5 sub-variant of Omicron — this was one of the sub-variants that led to an increase in cases in South Africa a couple of months ago.
The first BA.5 case in India was reported in late May in Telangana. experts believe that there is no clinical significance of this change.

Which Covid-19 variants are currently the most in circulation?

Genome sequences uploaded to the global database GISAID show that
- BA.2.38 — which branched off from BA.2 — is dominant in the country, accounting for 30% of all sequences over the last 30 days.
- This was followed by the BA.2 sub-variant itself, accounting for 28% of samples.
- Although BA.4 and BA.5 were detected in the country at almost the same time ,BA.5 has been spreading faster, accounting for 7% of the sequences uploaded to the global database in the last 30 days.

What has changed between the January wave and the current wave?

The biggest difference is that there is no cluster formation with any of the emerging sub-variants.
When Omicron was on the rise in December-end and January, there was clear cluster formation, which helped researchers quickly connect the dots that the increase was driven by the new variant.

What does coronavirus cluster mean?

Cluster: It refers to an aggregation of cases of a disease. A coronavirus cluster occurs when there is a concentration of infections in the same area at the same time.
In general, the World Health Organization (WHO) uses the following categories (PDF) to describe transmission patterns: sporadic cases, clusters of cases and community transmission.