Omicron BA.5 COVID subvariant spreading at ‘very intense level,’ WHO warns
Global News
The WHO has seen a substantial increase in cases of the Omicron subvariant, BA.5, over the last four weeks and that trend is expected to continue.
COVID-19 cases are rising across the world as the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant of Omicron spreads at a “very intense level,” the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
At a news conference on Tuesday, the WHO chief said subvariants of Omicron, like BA.4 and BA.5, continue to drive waves of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths around the world.
“The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom told a virtual press conference from Geneva, Switzerland.
“New waves of the virus demonstrate again that COVID-19 is nowhere near over,” he added.
The spread of BA.5, which is now the dominant version of the virus globally, is of concern because it has a growth advantage over other sublineages of Omicron, said WHO COVID-19 technical lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove.
“The virus is spreading at a very intense level at a global level and our ability to detect cases has reduced since the surveillance strategies have changed,” she told reporters.
The WHO has seen a substantial increase in reports of BA.5 cases over the last four weeks alone, Van Kerkhove said, adding that the trend is expected to continue around the world.
The agency is also aware of reports of reinfection, but does not have specifics of sublineages.
