Covid-19 : Omicron BA.5 Causing Panic

Covid-19 is moving at a rapid pace since Omicron surfaced. Since then, multiple Omicron subvariants have emerged. In early July 2022, a strain called BA.5, the most contagious one so far along with BA.4, another subvariant-is causing more than 30 per cent of cases, making it the predominant strain in the United States and other countries like China and South Africa. 
According to data from the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the World Health Organisation (WHO), the new immune-evading Omicron subvariant BA.5 is now dominant in the U.S, and fuelling global surges in cases. BA.5 is estimated to have caused nearly 54 per cent of Covid-19 infections in the U.S. last week. Along with twin variant BA.4, it swept South Africa this spring owing its ability to evade immunity from both prior infection and vaccination. The week before that, the two variants combined made up slightly more than half of U.S. cases. But last week, BA.5 accomplished the same feat alone, without the help of BA.4, which came in third at 16.5 per cent. 
A recent study out of South Africa found that those who had been previously infected with Omicron but not vaccinated experienced a nearly eightfold drop in neutralizing antibodies when exposed to BA.4 and BA.5. Those who had been vaccinated and previously infected with Omicron saw a milder three-fold decrease.  Alex Sigal, a Professor at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa, told Fortune in May that symptoms of the new sub variants are similar to typical Omicron symptoms, which include fever, loss of smell, and malaise. 
Information also indicates that last Sunday, the city of Shanghai in China discovered Covid-19 case involving a new Omicron BA.5.2.1 subvariant. The case, found in the financial district of Pudong on July 8, was linked to a case from overseas, said Zhao Dandan, vice-director of the city's health commission. The Omicron...