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More concerning than Omicron BA.4 and BA.5: Expert on what could lead to the next COVID surge

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BA.4 and BA.5 are not new viruses, rather, these are just sub-lineages of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 infection, Dr Jayadevan, Indian Medical Association's national task force's co-chairman told news agency ANI. “Basically, Omicron took off from one branch of the genomic tree and these are the smaller branches of Omicron itself so they are not new viruses.

We know that this virus is continuously adapting to the human host in order to escape our immunity and also to travel faster between people." Omicron took off at a much higher rate in many countries, including India.

And, South Africa's experiences reassure us that the two sub-lineages are not going to cause a large-scale problem if we are careful enough.

He said, "BA.4 and BA.5 caused a surge in cases a couple of weeks ago, but they came down rapidly. They did not go as high as the Omicron did back in November, December last year." Hence, it seems sub-variants of Omicron (BA.4 and BA.5) are not going to cause a surge in cases, still, we need to be vigilant, he said.

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