BA.5 Covid variant 4 times more vaccine-resistant, reveals study

By Lokmat English Desk | Published: July 18, 2022 04:44 PM2022-07-18T16:44:14+5:302022-07-18T16:44:14+5:30

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The BA.5 Omicron subvariant, now the dominant coronavirus strain in the US, is four times more resistant to Covid-19 vaccines, according to a new study published in Nature.

The study found the variant is four times more resistant to messenger RNA vaccines than earlier strains of Omicron, which include Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines, Xinhua news agency reported.

The strain is "hypercontagious" and is contributing to increases in hospitalisations and ICU admissions, said the Mayo Clinic in a report on Thursday.

The BA.5 strain represented 65 per cent of Covid-19 cases in the country in the week ending July 9, according to the latest data from the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

Unvaccinated people have about a five times higher chance of contracting the virus than those who are vaccinated and boosted, while chances of hospitalisation are 7.5 times higher, and chances of death are 14 to 15 times higher.

India added 16,935 new coronavirus infections in a day, taking the country's tally to 4,37,67,534, while the active cases increased to 1,44,264, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday.The death count climbed to 5,25,709 with 49 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

The active cases comprise 0.33 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.47 per cent, the ministry said.

Maharashtra's Thane district has reported 148 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths, raising its infection tally to 7,32,560 and the fatality toll to 11,921, a health official said on Monday.

If there is a sore throat and difficulty in breathing, there is a possibility of infection with corona virus. So if this happens, contact the doctor immediately. A Hindi website has reported about this.

A team of researchers studying the corona virus has found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that appeared in late 2019 has now changed in several ways. Corona virus is now more contagious than ever.

Research in the early days of the corona infection said that the corona virus can survive on surfaces for only a few minutes, until the second wave, can the virus stay in the air or not? This was not confirmed.

Scientists say about the variant that emerged after mutation, under certain conditions the corona can survive for more than 30 days on many things, besides the airborne virus poses a risk of indoor infection. Therefore, the mistake of taking Corona lightly is expensive.

Due to the change in the nature of the corona virus, the risk of its re-infection is also increasing. So far, studies have assumed that once an infection is cured there is no risk of re-infection for up to 12 weeks.

In recent research, researchers have said that with new variants, this period has now been reduced from 28 days. That is, if you have been infected once, you can succumb to the virus again within a month.