Argentina reported the first case of the BA.2 subvariant of the ómicron strain in the country, according to a statement from the Argentine government published on Tuesday. It was a man, 62 years old and resident in Buenos Aires, who He arrived in Argentina on January 12 from Uruguay and two days later he began with symptoms. An analysis of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases ANLIS Malbrán confirmed that his case was the new variant.
The Minister of Health, Daniel Salinas, explained to The Observer that the Epidemiology area of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) It is already carrying out the contact tracing of the affected man and that the Pasteur Institute was also informed of the event for the sequencing of possible cases of this subvariant.
The man the disease was mild and with outpatient treatment. His wife also has symptoms of covid, although the government did not confirm that she had the disease.
The BA.2 variant differs from the omicron variant (BA.1) in terms of its spike protein, and in the absence of studies it is believed that “would have a higher growth rate compared to BA.1”, declared the Argentine government.
In Denmark this new strain of omicron led to an increase in cases, with between 40 and 50 thousand new infected people per day. But nevertheless, The Nordic country lifted all restrictive measures related to the pandemic on Tuesday given the large number of vaccinated and immunized for having passed the virus, and the decoupling between new cases and serious cases or deaths.
