Europe: BA.4 and BA.5 reclassified as Variants of Concern

BA.4, BA.5, Coronavirus, Europe, Genome, Health, Infection, Omicron, Reinfection, Testing, Transmission, Variants

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has issued an Epidemiological update on 13th May 2022. BA.4 and BA.5 have been reclassified as Variants of Concern. The ECDC seem to have been spooked by the latest figures BA.5 from Portugal which have reached 37% of  sequences in the past week.

This is the first upgrade of a variant of interest to a variant of concern since the original Omicron variant B.1.1.529 was  upgraded in December 2021.

 

 

ECDC: Epidemiological update: SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sub-lineages BA.4 and BA.5

H/t @Gab_H_R

 

 

 

Image by Christine Sponchia from Pixabay

** This post was originally published on May 13, 2022 **