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All of our PCR tests can still detect it.' What can you do to protect yourself?ĭoctors advise the same precautions they have all along: Get vaccinated and follow public health guidance about wearing masks, avoiding crowds and staying home when you're sick. 'Don't get the impression that 'stealth omicron' means we can't detect it. 'It's not that the test doesn't detect it it's just that it doesn't look like omicron,' he said. So on the test, Long said, BA.2 looks like delta. The original version of omicron had specific genetic features that allowed health officials to rapidly differentiate it from delta using a certain PCR test because of what's known as 'S gene target failure.'īA.2 doesn't have this same genetic quirk. Still, the original version of omicron remains dominant in the U.K.

The UK Health Security Agency, meanwhile, has designated BA.2 a 'variant under investigation,' citing the rising numbers found in the U.K. Given its rise in some countries, however, the agency says investigations of BA.2 'should be prioritized.' The World Health Organization classifies omicron overall as a variant of concern, its most serious designation of a coronavirus mutant, but it doesn't single out BA.2 with a designation of its own. Scientists will be conducting tests to see if antibodies from an infection with the original omicron 'are able to neutralize BA.2 in the laboratory and then extrapolate from there,' he said. Daniel Kuritzkes, an infectious diseases expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

The two versions of omicron have enough in common that it's possible that infection with the original mutant 'will give you cross-protection against BA.2,' said Dr.

But they're hopeful, especially that a prior omicron infection might lessen the severity of disease if someone later contracts BA.2. It's also unclear how well treatments will work against it.ĭoctors also don't yet know for sure if someone who's already had COVID-19 caused by omicron can be sickened again by BA.2. Scientists there are still looking into this version's infectiousness and how well current vaccines work against it. 'But we don't necessarily know why that is.'Īn initial analysis by scientists in Denmark shows no differences in hospitalizations for BA.2 compared with the original omicron. 'We have some indications that it just may be as contagious or perhaps slightly more contagious than (original) omicron since it's able to compete with it in some areas,' Long said.

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