Russia detects 'more contagious' subvariant of COVID-19 Omicron strain, know all about it

Russia has detected a "more contagious" subvariant of COVID-19 Omicron strain, confirmed a senior official at national consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnzor. According to TASS news ncy, BA.4 sub-line of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has been found in country. Russian scientist Kamil Khafizov stated that it was detected while examining a sample collected last month. " geme of BA.4 line of SARS-CoV-2 virus has been deposited into VGARus base, developed by Rospotrebnzor’s Central Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology," TASS News ncy quoted Khafizov as saying while speaking to reporters on Sunday. He told reporters that samples were collected by two research institutes in May this year.

"One sample was deposited by Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza, and ar one - by Rospotrebnzor’s Central Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology," ded Russian Health Watchdog. Furr, he said that country has been reporting maximum cases due to BA.2 variant and its sub-variants. "BA.2 is responsible for all new cases registered in country," he ded. According to Russian scientist, good herd immunity, acquired through vaccination and previous waves of lethal virus, has prevented new virus from turning into a fatal situation.

However, he ackwledged that a number of researches published indicate that BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lines of omicron are slightly more transmissive than earlier versions of coronavirus. same ory was echoed by he of World Health Organization last month. WHO chief Tedros ham Ghebreyesus said that Omicron sublines BA.4 and BA.5 were driving a surge of infection in unvaccinated nations and ded BA.2 subvariant remains dominant across world. 

What is Omicron Subvariant BA.4?

According to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, both BA.4 and BA.5 were first detected in South Africa in January and February 2022, respectively, and since n y have become dominant variants re. Both lines contain ami-acid substitutions L452R, F486V, and R493Q in spike receptor binding domain compared to BA.2. Preliminary studies suggest a significant change in antigenic properties of BA.4 and BA.5 compared to BA.1 and BA.2, especially compared to BA.1. ditionally, re is an increasing trend in variant proportions for BA.5 observed in Portugal in recent weeks, accompanied by an increase in COVID-19 case numbers and test positivity rate.

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