THE HAGUE: The Netherlands announced on Wednesday it has become the latest country to detect a case of the Covid Omicron subvariant BA.2.75, as experts expressed concern about the strain’s rapid spread.
The subvariant, nicknamed “Centaurus”, first emerged in India in May and has since spread to around 10 countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia.
It “has also now been identified in the Netherlands,” the Dutch National Institute of Public Health said in a statement.
“Little is known about BA.2.75,” the institute said, but it “appears to more easily bypass the defences built up against SARS-CoV-2 through small, specific changes”.
The World Health Organisation’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said last week that the UN agency was closely tracking the strain, but there were “limited sequences to analyse”.
“This sub-variant seems to have a few mutations on the receptor binding domain of the spike protein... so we have to watch that,” she said in a tweeted video.
She added that it was “too early to know” how well the strain can evade immunity or how severe it was.
Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva, told AFP that BA.2.75’s spread in India indicated it could be more transmissible than the BA.5 Omicron subvariant, which has been driving waves in Europe and the US.
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