South African scientists discovered two new Omicron sublineages

The lineages have been named BA.4 and BA.5.

Tulio-de-Oliveira two-new-sublineages-discovered South-African-scientists
In a recent discovery, it has been found that South African scientists have discovered two new sublineages of the omicron coronavirus variant, said Tulio de Oliveira, who runs gene-sequencing institutions in the country.

The lineages have been named BA.4 and BA.5.

De Oliveira said, the lineages have not caused a spike in infections in South Africa and have been found in samples from a number of countries.


“Given the very low infections, hospitalizations and deaths in South Africa we are alerted about the continued evolution but not concerned. All of the laboratory science on virus neutralization and vaccines are already under way and we are strengthening genomic surveillance,” stated De Oliveira in a text message.

 
Botswana, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and the U.K are those countries where sublineages have also been found in samples.

“The two differ from each other in terms of amino acid mutations outside the spike protein,” he added.

 

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