On Monday, Jan. 31, in the United States, the first case of the new variant of the BA.2 omicron, which is also known as the “stealth omicron,” was discovered in Illinois, according to the information provided by the officials of Northwestern University.
Moreover, the university administrators shared the information, the first case was noticed by Northwestern Medicine’s Center for Pathogen and Microbial Evolution (CPGME) in the past week.
On Jan. 18, the people who were infected by the variant was further tested for the COVID-19. The detailed information about the individuals is not yet identified and where they located in Illinois in the United States. As per the data provided, this is not the first case of the cousin variant of the Omicron, which is found in the Midwestern United States.
On Monday, the health officer of Milwaukee County said the subvariant is also recorded in Wisconsin.
However, the Scientists with Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine mentioned as the information related to the spread of the subvariant is not a surprise.
The bioinformatics director at CPGM, Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, said in a statement, “Currently, the question is that the new variant of the COVID ( BA.2 omicron) will also increase similarly as the existing variant is affecting the lives of the people.”
Furthermore, the new variant BA.2 is a particular variant of the Omicron, also called BA.1. On the other hand, it also maintains many additional mutations that make the variant more transmissible, said the associate director of CPGME, Judd Hultquist.
At this duration, the BA.2 variant has been noticed in around 40 nations.
According to the World Health organization, by having a look at the increase in the cases of people getting infected by the BA.2, “Should be prioritized.”
