Covid-19: What we know about the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants

When and where were these subvariants detected?BA.4 and BA.5 were first detected in South Africa in January and February 2022, respectively.1 They are offshoots of the omicron variant BA.2, though their additional mutations seem to have given them a transmission advantage.2What’s the difference between BA.4 and BA.5?The World Health Organization has said that BA.5 now accounts for more than half of the world’s cases, while BA.4 accounts for just over one in 10.3Why BA.5 has overtaken BA.4 is a mystery, because they’re so similar. Speaking at a Royal Society of Medicine event, Thomas Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, said, “They have identical spikes, more or less. So that means it has to be something outside the spike. And really our understanding of that from a virological perspective is very poor.”Is BA.5 driving up hospital admissions and deaths?The number of covid patients admitted to hospital rose steadily from around…
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