CLEVELAND — While Ohio and the world continue to fight omicron, there is a new warning out regarding a viral spinoff of the variant.
The World Health Organization is keeping an eye on a new sub-variant of omicron dubbed BA.2. Cases have been reported throughout the globe, including a few cases in California and Washington state.
Currently, there are no reported sightings of the strain in Ohio, according to University Hospitals' Dr. Claudia Hoyen.
"What happened was back in December, two different variants split off," the infectious disease specialist at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital said. "One is BA.1, which is around the world right now [and] here in Cleveland. It is about 99% of all of the omicron we've seen.
"And there is the sister variant or the brother variant, which is BA.2. It sounds like it was first identified in Asia, probably the Philippines"
Hoyen says the variant being dubbed "stealth omicron" now makes up about 50% of cases in Denmark.
"It does not seem to be causing any more severe disease than omicron BA.1, so we will keep watching for that as well," she told 3News. "Finally, some people are referring to it as being 'stealth,' and what that is referring to is the fact that depending on the PCR sequencing that you are doing, because of the mutations, that initial part of the PCR that helps amplify the DNA doesn't attach very well, so you may not get a positive result.
"It may be more contagious than omicron BA.1, but I think it's very early at how worried we need to be about this."
Right now, it's not clear if you can contract both omicron BA.1 and BA.2.
"I don't think it's going to be the last variant we see," Hoyen added. "I'm hoping as things change, they will continue to get more mild."
In the meantime, Pfizer is launching a new clinical trial for a vaccine specifically targeting the COVID-19 omicron variant, but with the speed omicron tears through communities, timing is key.
"By the time this clinical trial's completed, omicron may not be an important variant," UH infectious disease specialist Dr. Keith Armitage said. "But if it is an important variant, then we'll have a new vaccine that's specific to omicron."