Two New COVID-19 Mutations Discovered in Botswana
A customer wears a mask as a protective measure against COVID-19 Coronavirus on March 31, 2020 while shopping at a supermarket in Gaborone.
Muhammad OsmanBotswana and other countries around the world have witnessed the dominance of the BA.5 Omicron variant of COVID-19 since July. In October, two new lineages of the Omicron variant started circulating, particularly in Europe and Asia, before making their way to the Southern African country.A pair of new sub-lineages of the Omicron COVID-19 variant were detected by Botswana’s Ministry of Health on Friday.Referred to as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, the two new mutations are both descendants of the BA.5 Omicron variant.
“The two are sub-lineages of the existing BA.5 Omicron variant that has been dominant in Botswana for the last few months and has additional changes to the virus,” Christopher Nyanga, Botswana’s permanent health secretary, said in a statement, urging all Botswanans to “remain vigilant and take precautionary measures of protection.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the new sub-variants are similar to others from the Omicron variant, but they differ in “immune escape potential,” which makes it harder for the human immune system to detect and neutralize the virus.
“While we are looking at a vast genetic diversity of Omicron sub-lineages, they currently display similar clinical outcomes, but with differences in immune escape potential,” WHO said. “Based on currently available knowledge, protection by vaccines against infection may be reduced but no major impact on protection against severe disease is foreseen.”
Botswana has currently recorded at least 326,633 COVID-19 cases, including 2,790 deaths. Over 323,700 people have already recovered.Since October, the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 Omicron mutations have been discovered in a number of countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore and Canada.