A new secondary omicron variant was discovered in Victoria just a day after another was found in New South Wales which is believed to be 10 per cent more transmissible.
Another minor variant of the highly contagious COVID-19 Omicron strain has been detected in Australia.
The new variant, which has not yet been fully identified but is believed to be either BA. 4 or BSc. 5, is under investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Victorian health authorities warned on Friday that sewage tests from the Tullamarine sewage catchment in Melbourne had revealed traces of the mutated virus.
This variant has also been recorded in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany.
Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that it is more contagious than other omicron sub variants already prevalent in the community.
“There are currently no known significant epidemiological differences between the new strain and BA. The Ministry of Health said in a statement on Friday.
Library of Alexandria. Strain 2, also known as ‘cryptic omicron’, made its debut earlier this year and has since led to a massive increase in cases around the world including Australia.
Little is known about the Library of Alexandria. 4 and BSc. 5 strains where fewer than 200 sequences have been collected, according to the World Health Organization.
“We did not detect any changes in the epidemiology of people with BA.4 or BS.5 compared to previous sub-strains of Omicron” — a point echoed by Australian health authorities,” WHO epidemiology chief Maria Van Kerkhove said at a conference on Wednesday.
Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said he was “not surprised” that this alternative had finally arrived on the shores of Australia.
“Not surprised. But don’t worry,” he tweeted late Friday.
“The important point with all of the newly emerging strains is that when you outgrow the existing variants, we get an upward pressure on cases and an increased risk of infection.
“So be aware of vaccinations; wear a quality mask indoors and get tested when needed.”
In the past 24 hours, New South Wales recorded 13,601 new cases, Victoria 9,559 new cases, Queensland 5,878 positive tests, Tasmania recorded 1,334 new cases, and the Northern Territory 391 new patients.
Western Australia and South Australia have not yet released their latest results.
It comes just a day after another omicron minor factor – strain XE – was first discovered in another Australian state.
NSW health authorities said in their weekly Covid-19 surveillance report that a case of XE was detected in a foreign traveler who had recently returned last week.
The XE variant is thought to be 10 percent more infectious than the original omicron.
“This is the first XE sequence to be identified in NSW and identified in a recently returned traveler,” NSW Health said in the report.
“Another recombinant BA.1/BA.2 sequence was previously identified but was not from the XE strain.”
Omicron XE is a recombinant virus that occurs when two separate strains of viruses fuse to form a new strain, single and mixed.
In the case of the omicron XE, it is a mixture of two omicron Covid BA variants. 1 and BA.2.
Bachelor of. 1 is the original omicron, without any mutations.
Then there is the BS. 2 – or “stealth omicron” – which has become the most prevalent strain of Covid in Australia.
Omicron XE was first detected in the UK on January 19, with more than 1,000 cases recorded there since then.
But this is not the first time that Covid recombinant viruses have been detected in Australia.
Last week, Australia’s first case of “Deltacron” disease (a mixture of Delta and Omicron BA. 1) was announced in New South Wales, and it was detected in Queensland the following day.
Originally Posted as New omicron subvariant BA. 4, BSc. 5 under investigation by the WHO discovered in Melbourne