Worrying trend: New Covid variant BA.2.75 shows ‘exponential’ increase in cases globally

Scientists in India, the US, and other countries are concerned about the spread of a new omicron subvariant because they think the new mutation would be able to overcome immunity from earlier infections and vaccinations. However, it is unknown if this omicron subvariant, designated BA.2.75, could result in more severe disease than other omicron variants, such as the widely known BA.5.

"It’s still really early on for us to draw too many conclusions," said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "But it does look like, especially in India, the rates of transmission are showing kind of that exponential increase."

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He claimed that it has not yet been established whether it will defeat BA.5. Nevertheless, Shishi Luo, head of infectious diseases for Helix, a company that provides viral sequencing data to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the fact that it has already been discovered in numerous locations around the world despite having less rigorous viral surveillance "is an early indication it is spreading."

According to Lipi Thukral, a researcher at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in New Delhi, the most recent mutant has been discovered in a number of remote states in India and appears to be spreading there more quickly than other variants. About ten other nations have also reported finding it, including Australia, Germany, the UK, and Canada. On the U.S. West Coast, two cases were recently discovered, and Helix discovered a third case last week.

A significant number of mutations distinguishing this new type from earlier omicron varieties are raising worries among scientists. According to Binnicker, some of these alterations affect the spike protein and may improve the virus's ability to attach to cells.

Another worry is that the genetic alterations may make it simpler for the virus to evade antibodies, which are defence proteins the body produces in response to an infection from an earlier variety or a vaccine. But according to scientists, immunizations and boosters remain the best line of defence against dangerous COVID-19. Updated vaccination formulations that focus on more recent omicron strains are probably being produced for the U.S. by the fall.

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