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There is still uncertainty around the significance of the changes to the viral genome, and further analyses will now be undertaken. This new UKHSA data on Omicron is promising while 2 doses of the vaccine arent enough, we know boosters offer significant protection against the variant and early evidence suggests this strain may be less severe than Delta. Dr Meera Chand, COVID-19 Incident Director at UKHSA, said: It is the nature of viruses to evolve and mutate, so its to be expected that we will continue to see new variants emerge as the pandemic goes on. We have now identified cases in the East Midlands, East of England, London, South East and North West. This is to be expected and UKHSA is monitoring the situation closely. The BA.2 subvariant of the COVID-19 virus is now the dominant coronavirus strain in the world, and while health officials are saying the subvariant acts like the original omicron version of the . While specific symptoms to BA.2 are not yet available, the NHS lists the main symptoms for Covid-19 as: a high temperature a new, continuous cough a. Omicron continues to grow faster than Delta, with an increased risk of transmission, particularly in contacts outside of the household. There will be a coprimary endpoint : Neutralizing antibody titers against the SARS-CoV-2 variant of most prominent public health interest according to pandemic evolution (among D614G, B.1.351, Omicron sub-variants BA.4-5, BQ1.1 and XBB or another recent variant) and against one of the variant targeted by the vaccines. Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid, said: We are learning to live with this virus and thanks to our world-leading surveillance system we can rapidly detect and carefully monitor any genetic changes to COVID-19. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) can confirm that 10 people have been hospitalised with the Omicron variant in England; the individuals were diagnosed on or before admission. Experts say BA.2 symptoms don't seem to be all that distinct from original Omicron (BA.1) or the immediately preceding Delta variant. Everyone over 18 is now able to walk into a vaccine centre, so do not hesitate to get yours. This is consistent with analysis published yesterday by Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh. There is currently no evidence of community transmission within the UK. Download the data.xlsx. The latest number of COVID-19 cases with mutations consistent with B.1.1.529 in England are published on UKHSAs social media channels. Hospital cases are also rising, but vaccines are still helping to stop many severe. Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor at UKHSA, said: This latest set of analysis once again demonstrates that a booster dose of the vaccine provides you with significant protection against hospitalisation from Omicron. There is now high confidence that the Omicron variant causes low severity of disease in adults. Wear a mask in crowded spaces and, when meeting people indoors, open windows and doors to ventilate the room. What are the symptoms of BA.2? Please take up this offer as soon as you are eligible to protect yourself, your families and your communities. Our findings suggest the current wave of Omicron infections is unlikely to lead to a major surge in severe disease in care home populations with high levels of vaccine coverage and/or natural immunity. This increased to 63% for BA.1 and 70% for BA.2 at 2 weeks following a third vaccine. A detrimental change in biological properties (changes in transmissibility, severity or immune evasion) compared to the current dominant variant. In some places, growth in recorded cases of the sub-variant has been sharp. Get vaccinated and, for those eligible, come forward for your third or booster dose as appropriate as soon as you are called. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has announced the emerging SARS-CoV-2 variant known as B.1.1.529 as a variant under investigation (VUI). Omicron BA.2.75, the variant derived from the BA.2 lineage which was identified internationally earlier this month, has now been categorised as a separate variant and given the designation V-22JUL-01. B.1.1.529 has a large number of mutations in the gene coding for the spike protein, and also in other parts of the viral genome. The Omicron variant sub-lineage known as BA.2 has been designated a variant under investigation ( VUI-22JAN-01) by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Under the new system, the variant of concern (VOC) label will be assigned to variants which are currently emerging or circulating, and which the following characteristics can be confirmed or predicted: 1. Currently, no experimental data has been reported about BA.2 and BA.3. So, like the original omicron strain (BA.1), the primary symptoms of a mild BA.2 infection are a cough, fever, fatigue and possible loss of taste or smell. As the coronavirus continues to evolve, a new highly contagious Omicron variant is appearing in India and other nations, including the United States, experts say.. The pace of sharing sequences by India is very slow, median days from collection to deposition is 69 days according to GISAID. It showed that the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines provided much lower levels of protection against symptomatic infection compared to the protection that they provide against Delta. Of symptomatic cases, loss of smell and taste was found to be more common in people who tested positive for Delta than those who had Omicron. The individuals who have tested positive and their contacts are all isolating. Ongoing analysis by UKHSA has found no evidence that infection with Omicron BA.2 results in a greater risk of hospitalisation, compared to Omicron BA.1. News stories, speeches, letters and notices, Reports, analysis and official statistics, Data, Freedom of Information releases and corporate reports. To date, there have been 426 cases of Omicron BA.2 confirmed by Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), with the earliest dated 6 December 2021. Early data shows that young children who are hospitalised experience mild illness and are discharged after short stays in hospital. Please take up this offer as soon as you are invited to protect yourself, your families and your communities. As prevalence increases, its more important than ever that we all remain alert, take precautions, and ensure that were up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations, which remain our best form of defence against the virus. Whilst the impact of these variants is uncertain, the variant classification system aims to identify potential risk as early as possible. As always, the booster vaccine remains the best protection against infection. The latest variant technical briefing suggests that Omicron continues to grow rapidly in all regions of England as measured by confirmed cases and S gene target failure (SGTF). Two variants, CH.1.1 and XBB.1.5, appear to have a growth advantage in the UK. Current guidance from NHS England is that the main symptoms of Covid continue to be a high temperature, a new continuous cough, a loss or change to your sense. Our continued genomic surveillance allows us to detect them and assess whether they are significant. 1 case has been identified in Wales. Thats why its critical that anyone with COVID-19 symptoms isolates and gets a PCR test immediately.. Vaccination is critical to help us bolster our defences against this new variant please get your first, second or booster jab without delay. Fourteen people are reported to have died within 28 days of an Omicron diagnosis, ranging in age from 52 to 96 years old. What is the stealth omicron, or BA.2, variant? Studies in the UK reveal (where stealth Omicron is already spreading at a high rate) that people infected with the sub-variant show gut-related . We have started to see cases where there are no links to travel, suggesting that we have a small amount of community transmission. A second BTN162b2 booster was previously found to be 52% and 72% effective in preventing Omicron BA.1 infection and hospitalization, respectively, in adults 60 years. Delta remains the predominant variantin England, accounting for over 99% of all COVID-19 cases. Please take up this offer as soon as you are eligible to protect yourself, your families and your communities. However, one must note, these are only early stage symptoms. As of 20 October, there were 15,120 cases of VUI-21OCT-01 confirmed by whole genome sequences in England since it was first detected in July. Its critical that anyone with COVID-19 symptoms isolates and gets aPCRtest immediately. Of those patients admitted to hospital,17had received a booster vaccine, 74 people had 2 doses and 27 people were not vaccinated. Positive tests with sufficient virus detected from people arriving in the UK are sent for confirmation through Whole Genome Sequencing, regardless of the presence or absence of SGTF. Everybody who is contacted or has symptoms should take aPCRtest as soon as possible, even if they have received a positive COVID-19PCRtest within the last 90 days. Runny nose (especially in combination with loss of smell) A runny nose is a universal sign of cold, flu and now COVID-19. Hospital admissions are increasing, and we cannot risk the NHS being overwhelmed. UKHSAs most recent variant technical briefing can be found on GOV.UK. Latest updates on SARS-CoV-2 variants detected in the UK. It is still too early to determine next steps, so please stay cautious this Christmas and get your booster as soon as possible to protect yourself and your loved ones. Updated analysisshows theadditional incremental benefit from each vaccine exposureincluding for boosters, even in those who have had prior infection. Read about our approach to external linking. But Omicron is an umbrella term for several closely related lineages of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the most common of which is the BA.1 lineage. One dose of any vaccine was associated with a 35% reduced risk of hospitalisation among symptomatic cases with the Omicron variant, 2 doses with a 67% reduction up to 24 weeks after the seconddose and a 51% reduced risk 25 or more weeks after the seconddose. You will not always know whether someone you come into contact with is at higher risk of becoming seriously ill from respiratory infections, including COVID-19. "The symptoms of the Omicron variant, which includes the BA.2 lineage, and the Delta variant, are similar," says Dr. Erica Johnson, MD, the chair of the Infectious Disease Board of the . Scratchy throat. Based on the reports from doctors treating the Covid variant and patients battling. Of these, 20 were in England, 3 in Scotland and 1 in Wales. The individuals that have tested positive are not connected to each other and are not linked to the previously confirmed cases. Overall, data shows significant reductions in neutralisation against several of the newly emergent variants (BA.2.75.2, BA.2.3.20 and BJ.1), compared to BA.2, BA.4 and the dominant BA.5. The analysis shows that coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the UK are primarily made up of BQ.1 and its sublineages, consistent with the UKHSA risk assessment published in October. It is very likely that we will find more cases over the coming days as we are seeing in other countries globally and as we increase case detection through focused contact tracing. There is insufficient data to make any assessment of protection against severe disease, or to assess the severity of illness caused by Omicron. People suffering From the Omicron BA2 variant said they had fever and body Aches. For some more vulnerable a third dose is available. As previously published, data continues to show vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation for Omicron remains high. UKHSAis acting to get scientific information available as quickly as possible in order to inform the right balance of interventions to prevent transmission and protect lives. XBB.1.5 remains at very low prevalence in the UK, so estimates of growth are highly uncertain. Available data are limited at this early stage, but it remains likely that the cases identified so far are a result of a number of separate introductions into the country. If you have any symptoms, take a test. Omicron has a deletion atposition69/70of the spike proteinwhich allows it to be tracked through S gene target failure(SGTF)in some PCR tests. UKHSA Chief Medical Advisor, Dr Susan Hopkins said: It is increasingly evident that Omicron is highly infectious and there is emerging laboratory and early clinical evidence to suggest that both vaccine-acquired and naturally acquired immunity against infection is reduced for this variant. Dr Meera Chand, UKHSA Director of Clinical an Emerging Infection, said: We continue to monitor the emergence of new variants and give them variant designations if they are sufficiently distinct to warrant separate epidemiological and laboratory assessment. The study also showed evidence to suggest that the BA.2 sub-variant is better able to evade vaccines. UKHSA designated variant B.1.1.529 as a variant under investigation (VUI) on Thursday 25 November. BA.2 attacking abdomen instead of lungs. Dr Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor for UKHSA, said: Ongoing variant analysis is an important part of our pandemic response. Any variants showing evidence of spread are rapidly assessed. When the reduced risk of hospitalisation was combined with vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease, the vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation was estimated as 52% after one dose, 72% 2 to 24 weeks after dose 2, 52% 25+ weeks after dose 2 and 88% 2 weeks after a booster dose. XD has not been identified in the UK to date, though 49 cases have been reported to global databases, the majority of these are in France.