He continued: “The variant has 30 percent more transmissibility than BA.1, but spread has been further enhanced by relaxed mitigation measures and waning of vaccine immunity. It’s all intertwined and clearly going to lead to more widespread surges, including in the US.”
Professor Topol warned that this would now further prolong the pandemic and could even provide “yet another path to a new variant in the months ahead”.
Colin Angus, senior research fellow at the University of Sheffield’s school of health, also identifies BA.2 as the key factor.
He told The BMJ: “The recent rise in COVID-19 infections, which is being driven by the emergence of the more transmissible BA.2 variant of omicron, has led to increases in the number of people in hospitals in England with COVID-19 in all age groups and across all regions of the country.”
