The UK Government has revealed that it is monitoring a sub-variant of Omicron that may be more transmissible.
According to Yahoo News, a sister variant of the usual BA.1 variant of Omicron, BA.2, has been detected in various European countries.
BA.2 shares similarities with BA.1, and they are both considered to be Omicron.
However, it has different S-gene mutations compared to BA.1, which means when carrying out a PCR test BA.2 shows positive for the S-gene while BA.1 does not.
The fact BA.1 lacked the S-gene was key to detecting and tracking the spread of Omicron early on.
BA.2 is spreading quickly in places like India and the Philippines, and early signs show it is growing in the UK, Germany and Denmark.
There are some indications it may be more transmissible, but experts say there is no conclusive evidence as of yet.
It was first designated as a variant on December 6, 2022 and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) noted an increase in the number of BA.2 cases from January 3 this year.
Will the BA.2 variant be more severe?
There aren't any indications yet if this new Omicron variant will cause more severe illness.
Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, speaking to Yahoo News, said the earliest indications from Denmark and India "suggest there is no dramatic difference in severity compared to BA.1.
"There is likely to be minimal differences in vaccine effectiveness against BA.1 and BA.2."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here