Omicron strain BA.5, which was the mainstream of the 7th wave of the new corona, has reduced the number of infected people in Tokyo, and is being replaced by a new mutated virus. We need to be vigilant about the rapid increase in the number of infected people.
On the 12th, a monitoring meeting was held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to analyze and evaluate the infection situation and the medical care system in Tokyo. maintained.
At the conference, the latest results of genome analysis for the past year were reported.
According to this, the proportion of "BA.5" in Omicron strains, which accounted for 98.4% of the total in September, decreased to 60.6% last month, while the proportion of new mutant viruses is increasing.
Of these, one of the Omicron strains "XBB.1.5", which is rapidly spreading in the United States, has been confirmed for the first time in Tokyo on the 1st of last month, and 15 cases have been confirmed so far.
According to the metropolitan government, "XBB.1.5" is assumed to be more infectious than "BA.5", and may have a higher ability to escape immunity from vaccination.
Takao Omagari, director of the Center for Global Infectious Diseases at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, said, ``We need to be vigilant about the rapid increase in the number of new infections in the process of replacement.''