The second detected sub variant of Omicron, BA.2, which is at the moment stated to be wreaking havoc in lots of international locations known as the stealth variant. Because the title suggests, it’s stealth as a result of although it has many frequent mutations with its ancestor BA.1 Omicron variant, it doesn’t have a genetic deletion on the spike protein which makes it troublesome to be recognized in RT PCR technique. Monitoring this variant is extra time consuming, therefore the title “stealth”.
On February 22, 2022 the World Well being Organisation (WHO) for the primary time launched an official assertion on this variant. The WHO had stated that based mostly on out there knowledge of transmission, severity, reinfection, diagnostics, therapeutics and impacts of vaccines BA.2 can be thought of as a variant of concern.