Epidemiologist Michael Baker says he is not surprised new Omicron subvariants have been found in the community.
In its Friday update, the Ministry of Health reported four cases of BA.5 and one case of BA.4, the first time for each in the community.
It also reported seven cases of the BA.2.12.1 subvariant in the community yesterday.
Baker says the real question is whether either would become the dominant strain in New Zealand.
"Initially we can't be exactly sure what they'll do in New Zealand, but certainly in countries overseas they're seeing these other subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 and another one BA.2.12.1 starting to take over from those that came before."
The new variants were more infectious, and would probably lead to a second wave of infection, as has happened overseas, he says.
The Ministry of Health says wastewater results and community cases suggest the BA.4/5 and BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariants were circulating in parts of the community in New Zealand.
In addition to the community testing, wastewater results returned in the past week have detected BA.4 or BA.5 in Auckland, New Plymouth and Porirua and BA.2.12.1 in Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Palmerston North and Taupō.
The subvariants had been detected at New Zealand's border for many weeks and their presence in the community was not unexpected, the ministry says.
Early data suggested that the BA.2.12.1 variant was slightly more transmissible than BA.2, which was currently the dominant subvariant circulating in New Zealand, the ministry said.
There is some clinical data to suggest that BA.5 and BA.4 may be more transmissible than BA.2, but no data suggests they caused more severe illness, the ministry says.
Saturday's Covid-19 update made no mention of any further community cases of the new variants.
2 comments
Riddle me this.
Posted on 06-06-2022 13:44 | By morepork
They told us that Omicron was incredibly infectious. We heard stories about it crossing corridors through open doors in a few seconds. I had dinner (indoors in close proximity for several hours), with my "bubble" (neighbours) and we all exchanged hugs on leaving. The next morning I had a sore throat and felt miserable so I RAT tested and was positive. I had to immediately tell my neighbours and they also RAT tested immediately and 3 days later. All their tests were clear. And yet, I was probably at peak infectiousness when we were having dinner. I guess we were lucky. But this virus is simply unpredictable. Now we hear again that the new strains are even more infectious. I'd like to see the datasets they use to establish infectiousness. How do they know or decide the relative virulence of a particular strain?
Contagious
Posted on 06-06-2022 20:35 | By Big poppa
In all due respect I really do think it's time for all the fear mongering to stop now and for us to all get on with life. Covid wasn't as near as bad as it was made out to be , we all know this is all about control .
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