Multiple variants in the COVID-19 pandemic have proven to be concerning, with delta's severity and omicron's ease of spreading both complicating efforts to keep people safe.
A new variant related to omicron, up to this point referred to as BA.2, is beginning to make a case that it's worthy of concern.
"It looks like we might be looking at a new Greek letter here," Seattle-based University of Washington School of Medicine virologist Deborah Fuller, PhD, told CNN in a Feb. 17 report.
Eleven things to know about the new variant, according to the report and a preprint study that hasn't yet been peer reviewed:
1. It appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster shot restores protection, however, reducing the chance of illness after infection by about 74 percent.
2. The new variant is resistant to some treatments, including the monoclonal antibody that's currently being used against omicron.
3. Antibodies in the blood of people who have recently had omicron appear to have some protection against BA.2, especially if they've been vaccinated.
4. The variant has dozens of gene changes that are different from the original omicron strain, making it as distinct from the most recent pandemic virus as the alpha, beta, gamma and delta variants were from each other.
5. It doesn't seem to show up on PCR tests the way omicron does, meaning labs have to take an extra step and sequence the virus to find the new variant.
6. It is about 30 to 50 percent more contagious than omicron.
7. It has been detected in 74 countries and 47 U.S. states.
8. The CDC estimates that about 4 percent of Americans with COVID-19 now have infections caused by the BA.2 variant.
9. BA.2 can copy itself in cells more quickly than the original version of omicron.
10. It's better at causing cells to stick together, which allows the virus to create larger clumps of cells — which then become factories for churning out more copies of the virus.
11. It has become dominant in at least 10 other countries: Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Denmark, Guam, India, Montenegro, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.