Canada’s top doctor says the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has detected more than 100 cases of a new Omicron subvariant known as BA.2, doubling the number of infections from the virus lineage that were reported earlier this week.
During a federal COVID-19 update on Friday, Dr. Theresa Tam said that the Omicron BA.2 subvariant was first detected in Canada in November 2021, and had been closely monitored.
“We’re one of the first countries to actually pick up on this variant, and we have at least over 100 identifications,” Tam said, according to CTV News Canada.
In an emailed statement to CTVNews.ca, PHAC previously said it had detected 51 cases of the BA.2 subvariant as of Wednesday.
There is growing evidence that BA.2 is just as contagious as — or possibly a bit more contagious than — the first Omicron variant, called “Omicron BA.1.”
“It could be that BA.2 does have some small advantage,” says Emma Hodcroft, an epidemiologist at the University of Bern who has been tracking variants all around the world throughout the pandemic via the Nextstrain project. “BA.2 might well be, like, 1 to 3 percent more transmissible, or something like that.”
If nothing else, this begs the question of is that small difference enough to prolong the pandemic?
Hodcroft says we can think of BA.2 as a sibling of BA.1. They share about 30 similar mutations, but they also have some that are rather unique. “They are quite similar, but they’re also different,” she says, reports NPR.org. “So very much like siblings, in my opinion. Different but obviously related.”
The BA.2 subvariant has been found in nearly 50 countries as of Friday, according to the global coronavirus data-sharing platform GISAID. The World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet dubbed BA.2 a “variant of concern,” says Time.com.
The BA.2 sub-lineage is widely considered “stealthier” than the original version of Omicron because some of its genetic traits make it harder to detect. Some scientists say it could also be more contagious, however, they acknowledge there are still a lot of unknowns about the subvariant.
While cases of the subvariant are increasing around the world, Tam said it is still too soon to know how it will impact Canada amid the current wave. Despite ongoing uncertainty around the subvariant, the health agency says Canadians should continue to follow the advice of public health officials.
