After the strain, the variants.

After the variants, the sub-variants.

The coronavirus continues to evolve, this time with a sub-variant of Omicron that appeared a few weeks ago.

Spotted in several countries around the world, particularly in Europe, it monopolizes the attention of the scientists who gave it the name BA.2 (hoping that it does not take on enough scope for it to be renamed in the manner Omicron or Delta variants).

On the government side, we want to be reassuring.

"There are variants fairly regularly," recalled Thursday evening the Minister of Health Olivier Véran during a press conference with the Prime Minister.

"As far as we know so far, it more or less matches the characteristics we know of Omicron."

It does not "change the game" at this stage, he assured.

Majority in Denmark and present in France

Like the Delta variant before it, the Omicron variant, by replicating, has generated "little brothers", sub-lineages which contain one or two mutations compared to the original genome. For the moment, the precise characteristics of the sub-variant have not been analyzed. But certain data attract attention: it would thus have become the majority in Denmark where the number of daily cases has started to rise again for a few days.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which has classified Omicron as a "variant of concern", does not at this stage make a distinction with the BA.2 subvariant.

"We have an international situation where the Omicron variant circulates a lot, it is normal that we observe sub-lineages over time," said the French public health agency on Friday.

"What interests us is whether it has different characteristics in terms of contagiousness, immune escape or severity," she continued.

To date, the variant has been detected in France, “but at very low levels”.

“The Danish authorities have no explanation for this phenomenon, but it is being closely monitored” according to the public health agency.

France for its part “closely follows the data which will be produced by Denmark”.

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  • epidemic

  • Variant Omicron

  • Covid-19

  • Health

  • Coronavirus

  • Denmark

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