Expert stuns Karl Stefanovic as she warns about MORE contagious Covid variant BA.2
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The SON of Omicron: Karl Stefanovic is left STUNNED after health expert warns about new Covid-19 variant that’s even MORE contagious
- Expert warned BA.2 version of Omicron could more infectious than ancestor
- Variant has been detected across Europe and is growing rapidly in Denmark
- University of Melbourne epidemiologist said strain dubbed ‘son of Omicron’
- ‘It may extend our waves and they may take longer to get out of,’ she said
A version of Omicron that is even more contagious than the original strain could extend Australia’s deadly latest wave of cases, a leading health expert has warned.
The new BA.2 subvariant has been detected across Europe and already makes up 45 per cent of all cases in Denmark.
Scientists fear the ‘stealth’ variant could also be even harder to track than previous strains as it can only be confirmed through lab analysis rather than a PCR test.
University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Nancy Baxter said initial data showed BA.2 could be even more infectious than its more common BA.1 predecessor.
‘There is a variant they call the “son of Omicron”,’ she told a clearly worried Today show host Karl Stefanovic on Thursday. ‘It’s more of a cousin, it’s a variant related to Omicron.’
Pedestrians wearing masks walk in front of the Sydney Opera House at Circular Quay on Tuesday. A leading health expert has warned a new, more contagious version of Omicron could be about to land on Australian shores
She said it was unclear if BA.2 would worsen the latest wave of Omicron cases or whether it would even land on Australian shores.
‘It looks like, if people can believe it, it could be more contagious than Omicron,’ she said.
‘So if it gets here, it may extend our waves and they may take a lot longer to get out of. But we don’t know enough yet, so stay tuned.’
‘That is bad news, for us to hear that again,’ Stefanovic replied.
Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke on Wednesday said the BA.2 subvariant appeared to be more contagious than the original Omicron variant.
The BA.1 lineage accounts for 98 per cent of all cases globally but in Denmark has been pushed aside by BA.2, which became the dominant strain in the second week of January.
The United Kingdom Health Security Agency has designated BA.2 a variant under investigation, saying it could have a growth advantage.
Preliminary calculations suggest BA.2 could be 1.5 times more infectious than BA.1, Denmark’s top infectious disease authority Statens Serum Institute (SSI) said in a note on Wednesday.
‘There is a variant they call the “son of Omicron”,’ University of Melbourne health expert Professor Nancy Baxter (right) told a clearly worried Karl Stefanovic on Thursday
The above graph shows daily Covid cases per million people in Denmark (red) and the UK (green). It reveals Denmark, where BA.2 makes up 45 per cent of cases, has seen a much bigger spike in cases
Pictured are motorists being tested at a pop-up Covid clinic in Melbourne’s north on Wednesday
Pictured above are all the countries where BA.2 has been spotted. Cases are growing in Denmark, Germany and the UK
However, an initial analysis by the institute showed no difference in the risk of hospitalisation for BA.2 compared to BA.1.
“There is some indication that it is more contagious, especially for the unvaccinated, but that it can also infect people who have been vaccinated to a greater extent,” SSI’s technical director Tyra Grove Krause said at the briefing.
This could mean the peak of Denmark’s epidemic will extend a bit further into February than previously forecast, Krause said.
BA.2 cases have also been registered in the UK, Sweden and Norway, but to a much lesser extent than in Denmark.
Denmark on Wednesday announced plans to scrap the last of its Covid-19 restrictions by February 1, the latest country in Europe to do so despite record high daily infection numbers.
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