DOH: Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 not cause for concern

The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday said the two new sub-variants of the highly transmissible Omicron variant detected in other countries —BA.4 and BA.5—should “not be any cause of concern.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier reported that it was tracking a few dozen cases of two new sub-variants of the highly transmissible Omicron variant to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous.

The WHO said BA.4 and BA.5, sister variants of the original BA.1 Omicron variant, were added to its list for monitoring. It is also already tracking BA.1 and BA.2—now globally dominant—as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3.

“Although there have been detected cases in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Denmark and the UK, this should not be any cause of concern,” the DOH told the reporters in a Viber message.

“There are also early indications that these new sub-lineages are increasing as a share of genomically confirmed cases in South Africa. There are currently no reported spike in cases, admissions or deaths in South Africa,” it added.

The UK's Health Security Agency reported that BA.4 had been found in South Africa, Denmark, Botswana, Scotland and England from January 10 to March 30.

All the BA.5 cases were in South Africa as of last week, but on Monday Botswana's health ministry said it had identified four cases of BA.4 and BA.5, all among people aged 30 to 50 who were fully vaccinated and experiencing mild symptoms.

The Health department said there are no results yet from the latest sequencing run in April.

“However, as of the latest run  we have yet to detect the recombinant variant Omicron XE or any other recombinant variant for that matter,” the DOH added.

The XE recombinant is a mutant of the BA.1 and the BA.2 sub-variants of Omicron, according to WHO.

The WHO said XE belonged to the Omicron variant until “significant differences in transmission and disease characteristics, including severity, may be reported.” —NB, GMA News