South African Scientists Discover Omicron Subvariant That Potentially Triggers New Wave Of COVID-19

Illustration - Delta variant COVID-19. (Between/Shutterstock)

JAKARTA - Two subvariants of the Omicron COVID-19 virus were able to evade antibodies from previous infections well enough to trigger a new wave, South African scientists have found.

However, both subvariants were less able to develop in the blood of people who had received the COVID-19 vaccine.

Scientists from various institutions in South Africa tested the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, which the World Health Organization (WHO) put on a watch list last month.

They took blood samples from 39 study participants who were previously infected with Omicron when the variant first emerged late last year.

Of the 39 people, 15 of them have been vaccinated – eight with the Pfizer vaccine, and seven with J&J – while 24 others have not received the vaccine.

"The vaccinated group showed about five times higher neutralizing capacity… and should have been much more protected", said the study, which was released in a pre-print report this weekend, as quoted by Antara.

In unvaccinated samples, there was an almost eightfold decrease in antibody production when exposed to BA.4 and BA.5, compared with the original Omicron variant BA.1. Blood from the vaccinated group showed a threefold reduction.

South Africa is likely to enter the fifth wave of COVID-19 earlier than expected, officials and scientists said on Friday.

They blamed the condition on a sustained increase in infections that appeared to be fueled by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.

Only about 30 percent of South Africa's population of 60 million people have received full vaccination.

"Based on their ability to avoid neutralization, BA.4 and BA.5 have the potential to cause a new wave of infection", said the study on the COVID-19 subvariant.