Covid-19 fourth wave: Days after an Israeli expert claimed that a new sub-variant of Omicron, which may be alarming has been found in 10 Indian states, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that a new sub-lineage BA.2.75 of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in countries like India and that the global health body is monitoring the developing scenario, PTI reported quoting Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The statements come as many countries, including India, are reporting the sudden rise in virus cases. This has triggered a scare of the fourth wave of coronavirus in the country. As per WHO, globally reported Covid cases have increased nearly 30 per cent over the past two weeks.


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Four out of six of the WHO sub-regions saw cases increase in the last week, Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing Wednesday.


BA.2.75 Omicron sub-variant in India: WHO confirms presence


On the emergence of the potential Omicron sub-variant BA.2.75, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in a video posted on Twitter that there has been an emergence of a sub-variant that is being called the BA.2.75, first reported from India and then from about 10 other countries.


Is  BA.2.75 Omicron sub-variant dangerous: WHO says THIS


According to WHO’s Swaminathan, there are still limited sequences available of the sub-variant to analyse, but this sub-variant seems to have a few mutations on the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein.


“So obviously, that's a key part of the virus that attaches itself to the human receptor. So we have to watch that. It's still too early to know if this sub-variant has properties of additional immune evasion or indeed of being more clinically severe. We don't know that,” she added


“WHO is tracking it and the WHO Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is constantly looking at the data from around the world,” Swaminathan further added.


Fourth wave scare: Covid-19 cases rising globally


The WHO weekly epidemiological update on Covid-19, released July 6, said that globally, the number of new weekly cases increased for the fourth consecutive week after a declining trend since the last peak in March 2022.


During the week of June 27 to July 3, over 4.6 million cases were reported, a figure similar to that of the previous week. The number of new weekly deaths declined by 12% as compared to the previous week, with over 8100 fatalities reported.


(With PTI inputs)