The ‘worst variant’ is here

Nearly two and a half years since the coronavirus pandemic began, the most infectious variant has just  arrived.

The repeated wave of Covid-19 has caused millions of people to die, with only vaccines helping to blunt the number of victims. Now the virus is spreading again — developing, escaping immunity and encouraging increased cases and hospitalization.

The latest version of the change in form, BA.5, is a clear sign that the pandemic is far from over. Omicron’s latest branch, along with a closely related variant, BA.4, triggered a global surge in cases – 30% over the past two weeks, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

A case  spike of around 25%, despite Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergency Program, said that the number might actually be higher, given “almost failed testing.” BA.5 is in a march in China, raising anxiety that the big cities there will soon re-impose the tight locking action that has just been revoked. And the same variant has become the dominant type in the United States, where it accounted for 65% of new infections last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“We have watched this virus develop rapidly. We have planned and prepared this moment. And the message I want to convey to Americans is this: BA.5 is something we monitor closely, and most of the important things we know is how to manage it,” said Dr Ashish Jha, Coordinator of the Covid-19 White House Response, at a press conference on Tuesday.

On the same day, the WHO Emergency Committee said Covid-19 remained an Emergency of Public Health that became an International Attention – the highest level of vigilance, first announced on January 20, 2020 – amid increasing cases, ongoing virus mutations, and increasing pressure on the health system that is already overwhelmed.

In a statement, the committee, which consists of independent experts, highlighted challenges to Covid-19’s ongoing global response, including a decline in testing and sequencing of the spotty genome, which raises questions about how accurate any country is able to monitor BA.5.

Official data dramatically calculate the true number of infections in the US, said epidemiologists, leaving the country with a critical blind spot as the most contagious variant of the corona virus ever. Some experts think there may be as many as 1 million new infections every day in the wider US population – 10 times higher than the official number.

As for how to manage the new wave, Jha urged Americans aged 50 years and over to get a second booster injection. Adults who take part in vaccinations are less likely to be hospitalized than those who are not vaccinated. But only about one in four adults in the US over 50 get the recommended second booster, according to data collected by the CDC.

US health officials are  working on plans to allow a second Covid-19 amplifier for all adults, amid fears that younger adult immunity might decrease because the Covid-19 case increases with dominance in BA.5.