Resistant and Contagious Omicron BQ.1 Sub-Variant hit Thailand and U.S.

(CTN News) – Thailand is now experiencing the first infection of the highly resistant and contagious Omicron BQ.1 sub-variant of Covid.

The Ramathibodi Hospital’s Centre for Medical Genomics found the sub-variant of the Omicron strain that mutated from BA.5.

According to the center’s Facebook post, authorities worldwide are warning of a potential outbreak of this Covid strain.

According to the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued outbreak alerts for BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 in the United States.

Omicron BQ.1 makes up 10% of all infections in the US, and it’s been found in Thailand too.

Especially dangerous about this strain is that it doubles so fast and spreads so fast.

Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the strain can also evade many prevention methods.

Having and recovering from another coronavirus strain may not create antibodies that can fight Omicron BQ.1.

Antibody medications commonly used to treat Covid may not work against these new strains.

There’s hope in a newer round of vaccines and antibodies. Vaccines with second-generation antibodies might be able to fight viral load increases.

It’s likely that an original immunization isn’t as effective as a vaccine against BQ.1‘s parent strain BA.5.

A second-generation cocktail of antibody medication could help.

According to Thailand’s Centre for Medical Genomics, Omicron BQ.1 will overtake BA.5 by the end of the year.

Compared with BA.2 and BA.5.2 strains, the subvariant spreads 14% to 15% faster.

There aren’t yet any numbers on how it’ll affect death tolls or how severe infections might be.

Another Covid strain, the XBB sub-variant, has been confirmed in two people in Thailand.

One was a 49-year-old Thai woman returning from Singapore, and the other was a 60-year-old foreign woman from Hong Kong.

During an examination at the same hospital, both had mild symptoms.

Symptoms to watch out for

There’s a shorter incubation period for Omicron sub-variants, so symptoms may appear quickly after contracting the virus. Omicron causes sore throats, which are often scratchy and burning. Symptoms of Omicron include coughing, fatigue, congestion and runny noses.

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