Two new Omicron sister variants – BA.4 and BA.5 – are now under the radar of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Reuters reported. “We have added BA.4 and BA.5, sister variants of the original BA.1 Omicron variant, to its list for monitoring. It is already tracking BA.1 and BA.2 – now globally dominant – as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3.,”WHO said on Monday, news agency Reuters reported.
Only a few dozen cases of BA.4 and BA.5 have been reported to the global GISAID database, according to WHO.
The WHO said it had begun tracking them because of their “additional mutations that need to be further studied to understand their impact on immune escape potential”.
Meanwhile, the US has ordered all non-emergency consular staff to leave Shanghai, which is under a tight lockdown to contain a COVID-19 surge.
According to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday, India recorded 796 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,30,36,928, while the active cases dipped to 10,889. The death toll climbed to 5,21,710 with 19 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
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