In the past year, the rapid mutation of the coronavirus has triggered new variants, which have swept across the world: Delta last summer, then omicron in winter and more recently omicron’s subvariants BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5.
The last pair have quickly become the world’s dominant forms of the coronavirus, as recorded in the GISAID international repository of coronavirus genetic sequences analyzed by The Washington Post. The worldwide chart of coronavirus variants below shows the sequence of omicron subvariants that have emerged since the peak of the delta wave in September 2021. The BA.5 subvariants which are very similar, were a small share just a few months ago and are now dominant. The GISAID sequences represent countries where genomic findings are publicly released, so some large countries are not included. Sequencing within the United States varies widely. Nationwide, omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants made up 4 percent of coronavirus samples sequenced in late May but is now the majority of sequences.
It takes about a week for laboratories to identify virus variants, so this data is always time-lagged. Using variant data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that omicron BA.4 andBA.5 subvariants were more than three-quarters of the covid cases in the United States. The impact of the BA.5/BA.5 subvariant is unclear, but like other versions of omicron they cause reinfection and sometimes evade vaccines. The CDC has urged people to remain up-to-date with vaccine boosters because people with outdated vaccines face increased danger from the variants. The charts below show the mix of coronavirus variants in a selection of countries that currently have high levels of omicron BA.4/BA.5. To capture the latest trends, these charts use a rolling average of the past three full weeks of data. In any country, the genomic sequences may be concentrated within a particular outbreak, or may miss some outbreaks, so it is not necessarily representative of the country as a whole.
Source: This news is originally published by washingtonpost