The World Health Organization said it’s too early to declare victory against the coronavirus, adding there are four omicron variant subvariants it is watching right now.
The news: World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said Thursday that the omicron variant is currently monitoring more subvariants of omicron, per Deadline.
- Specifically, the WHO is watching the BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3 variations of the omicron variants, all of which fall under the umbrella of omicron, according to WHO.
What they’re saying: “This virus is dangerous, and it continues to evolve before our very eyes,” said Tedros, according to Deadline. “WHO is currently tracking four sublineages of the omicron variant of concern, including BA.2.”
- “We still don’t know everything about the virus,” said WHO COVID-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove, according to Deadline. “We still don’t know everything about the variants and the future trajectory of that.”
The bigger picture: The two subvariants of omicron have been spreading throughout the world, raising concerns that the coronavirus will continue to infect unvaccinated and unvaccinated alike, as I reported for the Deseret News.
- Denmark, the United Kingdom, Singapore and India are all countries that have seen increased COVID-19 case numbers associated with the BA.2 and BA.3 subvariants, per Insider.