The sub-variant of the Omicron variant, named BA.2, which has increased the rate of spread recently, showed its existence very quickly in a short time, according to a new report published by the World Health Organization (WHO). In its weekly report published today, WHO announced that the BA.2 sub-variant has now become dominant in 10 countries and accounts for the majority of cases.
According to the information shared by WHO in the report, 10 countries where the BA.2 variant became dominant as of 14 February; Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Denmark, Guam, India, Montenegro, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines. While the region where the BA.2 variant was most common was South East Asia with 44.7% among Omicron cases, the Americas region was the region with the lowest rate.
BA.2 has also increased its rate in the world
WHO has also compiled global data for the BA.2 variant and in the week of 7-13 February, Omicron of the BA.2 variant cases increased to 21.09%. WHO announced that preliminary information on the variant indicates that BA.2 is more contagious than the BA.1 variant of Omicron. The severity of the variant was reported to be almost at the same level as the other Omicron variant.
The overall COVID-19 case increase rate, except for the BA.2 variant, decreased globally. On February 7-13, the COVID-19 case increase rate saw a 19% decline compared to the previous week. No change was observed in the death rate. While approximately 16 million new cases were seen all over the world in the last week, nearly 75,000 people died due to the virus.
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