▲ Sampling to detect coronavirus, yesterday in Beijing.Photo Afp
The Independent, Ap and Afp
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, June 21, 2022, p. 16
London. The latest omicron subvariants may have evolved to target the lung, raising fears that the next wave of covid could be starting, reported yesterday. The Independent.
Hospital admissions for coronavirus patients in England have started to grow again, according to new data from the British National Health Services.
The World Health Organization has been investigating two sub-variants of omicron since April to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous than their predecessor. Both BA.4 and BA.5 have been added to the agency’s watch list.
Last week, new figures showed UK covid-19 infections rose 43 per cent in the week after the platinum jubilee celebrations, with the two new subvariants thought to be behind the surge.
Additionally, around 1.4 million people in the UK had SARS-CoV-2 in the week ending June 11, up from around 990,000 the previous week.
According to preliminary data by Kei Sato of the University of Tokyo and colleagues, BA.4, BA.5, and BA.2.12.1 may have evolved to favor infection of lung cells again, rather than tissue of the lung. upper respiratory tract, making them more similar to earlier variants, such as alpha or delta.
The propensity of earlier omicron variants to infect nonpulmonary tissues may be one reason why infections tend to be milder in most people.
Our investigations suggest that the risk of these omicron variants, in particular BA.4 and BA.5, to global health is potentially greater than that of the original BA.2
Said Sato.
The current number of infections matches levels last seen in early May, but remains well below the record high of 4.9 million at the peak of the BA.2 omicron wave in late March.
Every day in China, officers in full protective gear insert hundreds of millions of disposable swabs after conducting large-scale PCR tests. The problem is the enormous amount of medical waste that is generated.
The pandemic has so far left 539 million 340 thousand 431 confirmed cases and 6 million 319 thousand 615 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
