The main reason for the rise in infections is the presence of new coronavirus variants, BA.4 or BA.5, in Spain. They aren’t as alarming as Centaurus from India, which is causing about 20% of all the country’s new infections in less than one week. It has been detected in 10 countries by the World Health Organization (WHO), and concerns about its high potential for spreading disease are growing.
Centaurus is the sublineage of BA.2.75, the first cases being detected in India in June. The WHO has raised alarms about the sublineage’s high contagion potential, which is five times greater than that of omicron. The WHO made this known through a statement posted on social media. Soumya Swaminathan (chief scientist at the WHO), stated that the “transmissibility, severity, and potential” for this new variant were not yet known.
Swaminathan stated that “there are still limited sequences to analyze”, but it appears to have some mutations that they have not yet studied. We will wait to see what happens, but we are following her closely. They hope to use some analyses to see if the new subvariant is more able to escape the immune system, or if it can lead to more severe diseases.
Soumya Swaminathan
WHO chief scientist
It has been found in India, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. According to Swaminathan’s first scientific studies, Centaurus may have “a range of mutations in the region around the spike,” which is key to the virus’s entry into human cells.
. @doctorsoumya shares what we know about Omicron’s potential sub-variant [referred to as BA.2.75]
“This subvariant is very different than the other ones and has sufficient properties to us to observe it with concern,” said the WHO chief scientist. He confirmed that Centaurus is being monitored by the Technical Advisory Group for the Evolution of the Virus. She clarified, however, that they will report on any virus that emerges that is sufficiently different from the last one to be considered Variant of Concern. This has not happened yet with Centaurus.
