The lab of the Jessa Hospital in Hasselt has discovered the BA.3 subvariant of omikron for the first time in our country. That writes Het Belang van Limburg and the news is confirmed by Jessa to Belga. For now, however, it doesn’t look like the sub variant will have a major impact, it sounds.
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Jessa’s lab has already discovered nine BA.2 subvariants and one case of the BA.3 subvariant. This is the first case of the BA.3 subvariant of omikron in Belgium. “There is not much news yet. The data are very limited,” says Prof. Dr. Peter Messiaen, who is an internist-infectiologist at Jessa and also a professor of virology at Hasselt University.
In some countries, the sub variant takes over from omikron BA.1, such as in Denmark, among others. A number of mutations in the S protein suggest even better transmissibility over the BA.1 subvariant. As far as is known, the same risk of hospitalization applies to the subvariant.
Does BA.3 then have a better ‘immune escape’ than BA.1, and in other words do the vaccines work just as well? That seems to be the case for now, according to Dr. Messiaen. For now, the subvariant also doesn’t seem to cause any more symptoms.
“Don’t worry too much”
BA.3 might be a little more difficult to detect on the basis of a PCR test, but there are no hard data for the time being. So it is currently a bit too early to make an estimate of the evolution of the pandemic, it sounds.
“We know that it is a rare variant, even worldwide,” says virologist Marc Van Ranst. Whether the subvariant will gain a foothold in our country is “totally unpredictable”, according to Van Ranst. However, he does not worry too much. “We also have to be careful not to scare people unnecessarily. Some people may now think that there is another new virus that we should be concerned about, but it isn’t. If it does, we will follow up,” he reassures.
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