The BA.2.75 variant, nicknamed Centaur, is quickly gaining ground in India after it was first spotted there in May. The new variant is thought to be spreading at an even faster rate than Omicron’s sibling BA.5 and BA.2 variants and has now been spotted in around 10 other countries, including the UK, US, Australia, Germany and Canada . It remains unclear whether it could cause more severe disease than other Omicron variants, but scientists say it can overcome immunity from vaccines and previous infection. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) designated BA.2.75 as a “variant under surveillance” on July 7, meaning there are indications it could be more contagious. Experts’ concerns are fueled by the large number of mutations BA.2.75 contains compared to Omicron’s predecessors. Some of these mutations are in regions associated with the spike protein and could allow the virus to bind to cells more efficiently, said Matthew Binicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Another concern is that genetic modifications may make it easier for the virus to bypass antibodies – the protective proteins produced by the body in response to a vaccine or infection from a previous variant. But experts say vaccines and boosters are still the best defense against severe Covid. It may take several weeks to tell if the latest mutant Omicron can affect the trajectory of the pandemic. Shishi Luo, head of infectious diseases for Helix, a company that provides virus sequence information to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said BA.2.75 is another reminder that the coronavirus is constantly evolving — and spreading. ECDC has designated BA.2.75 as a “variant under surveillance”, meaning there is evidence it could be more contagious (Getty Images) “We would like to go back to life before the pandemic, but we still have to be careful,” he said. “We have to accept that we now live with a higher level of risk than in the past.” The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that Covid remains a global emergency, almost two and a half years after it was first declared. The UN agency’s emergency committee, made up of independent experts, said in a statement that rising cases, the continued evolution of the virus and the strain on health services in some countries meant the situation remained an emergency. The number of new coronavirus cases reported worldwide rose for a fifth consecutive week, while the number of deaths remained relatively stable, the WHO said on Thursday. Rising Covid continues to put pressure on the NHS (PA Wire) In the UN health agency’s weekly review of the Covid pandemic, the WHO said 5.7 million new infections were confirmed last week, an increase of 6 percent. There were 9,800 deaths, roughly similar to the previous week’s figure. Earlier this week, WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic was still a global emergency and he was “concerned” about the recent outbreak. “The virus is running free and countries are not effectively managing the burden of the disease,” Dr Tedros said. “New waves of virus prove again that Covid is not over.” Over the past two weeks, Covid cases reported to the WHO have increased by 30 percent, largely due to Omicron’s highly infected relatives, BA.4 and BA.5.
