The fifth wave of the epidemic in Hong Kong has lasted for a long time, but fortunately, the recent confirmed cases have finally gradually declined. But one wave is uneven, and one wave is rising again. While the number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong continued to decrease, hong Kong was shocked to see the first infection of the Omikejong BA.5 variant strain, which raised everyone's heart to the throat eye.
The Hong Kong Department of Health said on the 14th that a 24-year-old man departed from South Africa, passed through Ethiopia and then arrived in Hong Kong via Thailand, and after getting off the plane, he was negative when he was tested for the new crown virus at the airport, but two days later in the quarantine hotel, he was tested positive by nucleic acid testing, and after full genetic analysis, the man was carrying a BA.5 variant virus, and the amount of virus was high. At the same time, symptoms such as low-grade fever and cough have been sent to the hotel for isolation. The man was the first infected person in Hong Kong with the Aomi Kerong BA.5 variant.
What the hell is the Amicoreon BA.5 mutation? It turns out that the recent new coronavirus Omikejong is simply the opening of the "seventy-two changes" skill, Omilon itself is a variant of the 2019 new coronavirus, numbered B.1, in March this year found that the Omilkeron variant (BA.2) evolutionary branch, at present, BA.2 strain is the "culprit" that leads to the increase in domestic cases. Earlier this month, XE was discovered in the UK, a recombinant variant of two variants of Omicron, BA.1 and BA.2, thus combining the genetic characteristics of the two strains, which WHO previously said was the most powerful strain available in the world. It perfectly combines the characteristics of the Original Ba.1 strain and the BA.2 subspecies strain, which is 10% faster than the ba.2 subspecies and 1.4 times the spread rate of the original BA.1!
At the same time, another recombination of the BA.1 and BA.2 permutation combination was also found for the first time in the UK, and was named XL, but this is not the end, the cunning new coronavirus did not leave enough time for humans to study, this recombination has brought 17 mutations at once, at present, the world has found 17 recombinant strains that also belong to the Olmiqueron, the name can be ranked from "XA" to XS, some of which have been verified, and some were found in the laboratory when doing genetic sequencing.
In addition, new subgenus varieties of Omilon, BA.4 and BA.5, have also emerged, and on Monday the World Health Organization announced that the new variants BA.4 and BA.5 will be added to the monitoring list. Their "additional mutations" are tracked and analyzed to determine whether they are more dangerous than previous strains, or more contagious.
As for the constant mutation and evolution of the new crown virus, WHO's special envoy for the new crown, David Nabarro, once said in an interview that the virus is "very annoying and quite cunning", while a team of international scientists found that there is a "shocking mystery" in the evolution of the virus when studying the Omilon variant.
Because according to normal evolutionary laws, whenever a virus replicates within a cell, the cell may produce a defective copy of the gene, and most of these mutations are "harmful mutations" to the virus, which will make the new virus defective and eventually unable to win the competition. Although there are also mutations that can cause the protovirus to undergo "beneficial mutations" and evolve into stronger mutated viruses, the chances are relatively small, but according to the international team of scientists, the Omilon variant contains multiple "rare mutations" that should have caused damage to the variant. Instead, their synergy allowed the Omikejong variant to break the normal laws of evolution and "thrive" into a stronger variant strain.
The research team speculates that Omi kerong may turn "bad mutations" into their own advantage by evolving under unusual conditions, and that people with particularly weak immune systems are particularly likely to become such "laboratories" for such evolution, such as AIDS patients and patients with chronic COVID-19 for a long time.