New Lineage Of Omicron Variant Found; What’s The Significance?

It’s been two weeks since the Omicron variant of coronavirus was first detected in southern Africa. Already, a new lineage of the latest COVID-19 variant has been found in several samples in Queensland, Australia.

Reports from Queensland suggest that the new lineage was first found in a person who travelled to Australia from South Africa.

Early analysis say that this lineage has about half the gene variations compared to the original Omicron.

The two lineages are being classified as BA.1 (original Omicron) and BA.2.

Since some mutations are common for both lineages of the variant, it will be difficult to detect the new lineage in a typical screening.

But it doesn’t mean that a person won’t test positive if he/she gets infected by this lineage of Omicron. RT-PCR test will show positive for both lineages.