Corona 19 virus model [사진 출처 = 연합뉴스]While sub-mutations with stronger transmission power than the Corona 19 micron mutation are spreading in the United States and Europe, a related mutation was confirmed for the first time in Indonesia.
According to Indonesian media such as the Jakarta Post on the 11th (local time), the Indonesian Ministry of Health was the first to detect one and three BA.4 and BA.5 mutations in their country the day before.
The mutation confirmed this time was “related to an international event held in Bali,” the Ministry of Health said. He added, “One out of four confirmed cases is a Korean national and three foreigners are all vaccinated.”
BA.4 and BA.5, first discovered in South Africa last April, are known to have stronger radio wave power than BA.2 (stealth omicron), which has become the dominant species worldwide.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that “BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading rapidly enough to account for 13% of cases of COVID-19 in the United States from the 29th of last month to the 4th of this month.”
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) also analyzed on the 9th that “Currently, BA.4 and BA.5 are the ones with the largest increase.” The two mutations were recently designated as ‘variants of concern’ by the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) and the UK Health and Safety Agency (UKHSA). However, there is no report yet that BA.4 and BA.5 increase the risk of severe hospitalization and death of the infected.
Earlier, Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), warned about the re-spreading of low-level mutations, which have stronger transmission power than omicron mutations, during the summer.
In a weekly report released on the 9th (local time), RKI said, “The current increase in the largest proportion is BA.4 and BA.5, which are sub-mutations of the Omicron,” and “The number of confirmed cases increases again in the summer, and the pressure of infection on vulnerable groups is strong. It can be,” he pointed out. At the same time, he was concerned that the seasonal effect of suppressing the spread of the virus to some extent could not offset the spread of lower-level mutations in situations where quarantine rules were not followed.
RKI also predicts that the omicron submutation will become the dominant species in the coming weeks. Among the confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Germany, the proportion of those infected with BA.5, a sub-mutation of the Omicron, has increased to 10%, doubling every week.
The proportion of BA.4 also doubled to 2.1% from the previous week. However, RKI explained that no evidence has been found regarding the concern that BA.4 or BA.5 may worsen the condition.
First reported in January and February of this year, these new variants BA.4 and BA.5 are already rapidly spreading around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported last month that the two variants were found in 50 countries.
The UK Statistical Office announced on the 10th that there are early signs of an increase in the number of COVID-19 infections due to the spread of BA. At this time, it was estimated that there were about 990,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK, or 1.5% of the total population (one in 65). This is an increase from the previous week’s 954,000 (one in 70).
It was the first time that the number of weekly corona19 infections increased since the end of March, and at that time, the number of confirmed cases reached 4.9 million due to the BA.2 epidemic.
An official from the UK Statistical Office said, “The number of BA.2 infections is the highest, but it is decreasing, and the recent slight increase is due to BA.4 and BA.5.”
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