Omicron’s new BA.4, BA.5 subvariants: How worried should we be?

[webfact]

 

Thai health authorities are keeping a close eye on two new Omicron subvariants – BA.4 and BA.5 – that are fast becoming dominant COVID-19strains across the world.

 

Dr Supakit Sirilak, who leads the Department of Medical Sciences, said BA.4 and BA.5 accounted for 51.7 percent of all COVID-19 infections in Thailand between June 25 and July 1. This percentage is based on an analysis of 948 Omicron cases during that period.

 

Elsewhere, these subvariants are driving fresh COVID-19 outbreaks in at least 110 nations, raising the number of global infections by 20percent overall. The two subvariants are also being blamed for soaring casualties in three of the six world regions monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO).

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/omicrons-new-ba-4-ba-5-subvariants-how-worried-should-we-be/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-07-05

 

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[Lee4Life]

The headline says, "how worried should we be?", leading one to think the following article may explain the severity of the newer Covid strains, but alas...nothing!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The full article

19 minutes ago, Lee4Life said:

The headline says, "how worried should we be?", leading one to think the following article may explain the severity of the newer Covid strains, but alas...nothing!

The full article explains what's known about these latest variants...

 

More transmissible than prior ones, more able to evade vaccine protections against infection. But not producing a higher rate of more severe symptoms than prior versions of Omicron.

 

However, if the rate of more serious symptoms just stays the same (small), but the total number of infections increases substantially, that means there's going to be MORE people getting noticeably sick.

 

And indeed, lately, Thailand's counts of people with COVID lung infection symptoms and requiring intubation to breathe have been increasing.

 

"She said that lung infections increased from 598 on June 17th to 684 cases today and those requiring ventilators rose from 288 last week to 292 today, adding, however, that the increase had been anticipated after the relaxing of face mask wearing requirements in public places and the reopening of pubs and bars.

 

Nevertheless, she noted that the fatality rate remains stable."

 

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailand-sees-rise-in-severe-covid-19-cases-after-easing-of-restrictions/

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Jimbo2014]

Highly uninformative 

[Padthaigoong]

The only thing that worries me is the mental health of the people still peddling this nonsense.