Sri Lankans warned of Omicron variant BA.5

26 Jun, 2022

Sri Lankans have been warned of the Omicron variant BA.5 which has been detected in several countries.

Dr. Chandima Jeewandara, the head of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology at Sri Jayewardenepura University, said that the latest COVID19 lineage BA.5 is the most transmissible.

“We?re all distracted, but there is still a pandemic happening. The latest COVID19 lineage BA.5 is the most transmissible and immune-evasive lineage detected since the pandemic began and it’s not mild. BA.5 has been detected in 63 countries although none in Sri Lanka yet,” he said.

Dr. Chandima Jeewandar said that BA.5 has similar spike protein mutations comparable to BA.4.

However, he noted that there are several mutations in other parts of the virus that may account for fitness. (Colombo Gazette)

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