A new Coronavirus variant that emerged from Israel this month has been detected in a number of countries. India, the UK, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Cambodia have all reported a number of cases of the new strain.
The Israeli variant is a combination of Omicron’s sub-variants — BA.1 and BA.2. The Israeli strain is being referred to as the “BA.2.2 variant” for the time being.
Last week, Israel’s Health Ministry had announced the detection of a new strain of Coronavirus which combines BA.1 and BA.2 sub-variants of Omicron.
The new variant was detected through nasal swab sampling obtained from two passengers during random PCR testing at the Ben Gurion Airport. The patients are in quarantine and are experiencing mild symptoms including fever, headache, and body pain.
On the other hand, researchers across the world have asked the public to stay calm as the phenomenon of the emergence of a new variant from the combination of two variants is not new.
In January this year, Cyprus detected ‘Deltacron’ and Israel reported ‘Flurona.’ The former is a combination of Delta and Omicron variants of the Coronavirus while the latter resulted from the double infection of COVID-19 and flu.
