London, January 21 (Xinhua) -- The British Health Security Agency announced on the 21st that the subtype of the variant new coronavirus Omilton strain, BA.2, has been identified by the bureau as a "variant strain under investigation (VUI)", and the recent cases of BA.2 strain infection reported by the United Kingdom and other countries are gradually increasing.
The bureau issued a statement on the same day saying that the United Kingdom has confirmed 426 cases of BA.2 mutant strain infection through whole genome sequencing, and the earliest cases found so far can be traced back to December 6, 2021. The original Omiljung strain, BA.1, is still the main strain circulating in the UK, and the proportion of BA.2 infection cases is currently very low.
It is unclear what effects changes to the genome of the BA.2 strain will have, the statement said. Preliminary evidence suggests that the number of BA.2 infections may grow faster than BA.1. However, there are uncertainties in the data related to the emergence of mutated strains, and further analysis is still needed.
According to reports, since November 17, 2021, about 40 countries and regions around the world have submitted more than 8,000 BA.2 strain genome sequences to the "Influenza Data Sharing Global Initiative" platform that shares genome sequence resources. It is not yet possible to determine where the strain originated. The first BATCH of BA.2 sequences submitted from the Philippines on the Influenza Data Sharing Global Initiative platform, with more than 6,000 samples from Denmark and more than 100 samples uploaded from countries and regions including India, Sweden, Singapore, etc.
The statement quoted Dr Mira Chandler, the HEALTH Security Agency's "head of COVID-19 incidents", as saying: "Evolution and mutation are the nature of viruses, so as the pandemic continues, we will continue to see new mutated strains emerge, which is to be expected." Chandler also said there is not enough evidence to determine whether BA.2 will cause more serious disease than BA.1, and the data is still very limited, and the UK Health Security Agency will continue to investigate.
According to the epidemic data released by the British government on January 21 this year, the country has 95,787 new confirmed cases compared with the previous day, with a cumulative total of 15709059 confirmed cases; 288 new deaths, with a cumulative death of 153,490 cases. More than 90% of people aged 12 and over in the UK have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, more than 83% have received at least two doses of the vaccine and more than 63% have received booster injections.