BA.5: how worried should we be about the new Omicron variant?

The Covid variant known as BA.5 is powering another wave of infections, with cases rising in many parts of the world.

Described as a “big deal” and “the worst version” of the virus to date by CNN, the latest variant of the Omicron virus has caused widespread concern. However, some experts are playing down the danger.

Here is what we know.

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Where did BA.5 start?

BA.5 was identified in January and has been tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO) since April. It has already caused spikes in case rates. Even taking into account reduced testing, numbers are up in South Africa, where it was first discovered, the United Kingdom, parts of Europe, Australia, the US and several other nations.

With WHO data showing that coronavirus cases worldwide have now been rising for four weeks in a row, anxiety is growing over the new variant.

What are the symptoms?

Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist and professor in the University of California, told Buzzfeed News that the symptoms of BA.5 are “actually very similar to BA.2 – sore throat, scratchy throat, congestion, runny nose, headache, fatigue, muscle aches”.

Less common symptoms, he said, were shortness of breath and loss of taste and smell.

Is it dangerous?

The new variant is “an escape artist”, cardiologist Eric Topol told PBS News, because “our immune system doesn’t recognise it like we did the previous versions to the virus”.

This means people are getting re-infected, often within weeks of recovering from a previous bout. “Suddenly,” said CNN, “many people who had recovered from Covid-19 as recently as March or April found themselves exhausted, coughing and staring at two red lines on a rapid test”.

This makes the variant “especially dangerous” as it means people who believe they are temporarily safe from Covid due to a previous infection are “suddenly vulnerable once again”, said the Daily Mail.

Worryingly, Topol described BA.5 as “the worst version of the virus we’ve seen”. In a newsletter posted on the US platform Substack, he explained that the variant “takes immune escape, already extensive, to the next level, and, as a function of that, enhanced transmissibility”.

However, he added, “it doesn’t appear to be accompanied by the ICU admissions and the deaths as previous variants”. The WHO also noted that, in Europe, “what we’re not seeing is an increase in intensive care unit admissions”.

David Dowdy, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, told BuzzFeed that BA.5 is the most contagious strain so far, “but not dramatically so”.

A vicious cycle

Nevertheless, the increased spread of BA.5 is expected to lead to more variants, which could themselves become more life-threatening.

“More variants mean more infections; more infections mean more variants,” said The Atlantic, adding that “a high rate of infections is keeping us in the vicious viral-evolution cycle”.

The UK government is continuing to encourage people to take up Covid vaccination, with the latest figures suggesting that as many as three million adults are yet to come forward for a jab.

A government spokesperson told the BBC that officials were “working hard” to reach unvaccinated people, highlighting the use of walk-in and mobile vaccination clinics and “bespoke messages from trusted voices – such as faith and community leaders”.