Jennifer Rigby

(Reuters) – Monday’s announcement by the World Health Organization indicated that it was tracking a handful of cases of Omicron, a highly transmissible strain of coronavirus. This is to determine if they are more dangerous or infectious.

BA.4 has been added to its monitoring, as well as BA.5 and BA.5, which are sister variants of original BA.1 Omicron. It has already begun to monitor BA.1 (now globally dominant) and BA.2 (now global dominant), as well BA.1.1, and BA.3.

According to the WHO, they were being tracked because of “additional mutations” that require further study to determine their effect on immunity escape potential.

While viruses can mutate at any time, some mutations only affect the virus’s ability to spread and evade immunity prior to vaccination.

BA.2 is now responsible for nearly 94% in all sequenced cases. It is also more transmissible that its siblings but evidence suggests it has no greater potential to cause serious disease.

According to WHO, only a handful of cases of BA.4 or BA.5 were reported to the GISAID global database.

According to the UK’s Health Security Agency, BA.4 was found last week in South Africa and England between Jan. 10 and March 30, according to reports.

As of last week all the cases of BA.5 were found in South Africa. However, Botswana’s health ministry announced Monday that it has identified four BA.4 cases and one BA.5, among individuals aged between 30 and 50 years old. These cases are mild and were not symptomatic.