Health experts have been certain for months that a new corona wave will be heading for Austria in autumn. The virus variant BA.2.75, unofficially known as “Centaurus”, is probably responsible for this, but this has not yet been detected in this country – until now.
The subvariant of the omicron virus has made global headlines in recent weeks. Although there is still very little information on BA.2.75, previous studies suggest that it is again much more contagious and could thus become the new dominant variant in the course of the pandemic. According to a Dutch study, small specific mutations should also be responsible for this ensure that the virus should be able to bypass the immunity built up by vaccination or previous Covid 19 infection. First cases of infection in Salzburg As the Munich GISAID initiative is now showing, the variant has already been detected in two cases in Salzburg. GISAID is a global scientific initiative that compiles the genome data of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 viruses. The BA.2.75 samples reported for Salzburg were therefore already taken on June 28th – the variant could therefore have spread further. However, the Agency for Health and Food Safety has not yet identified the new variant on its website and has confirmed the cases of infection not yet. On request, however, AGES explained that not all samples had been broken down accordingly. BA.5 is currently still dominant in Austria. “Variant under observation” The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has been evaluating BA.2.75 as a “variant under observation” since the beginning of July. This means it could be more contagious and is associated with more severe disease progression. However, the evidence for this is weak or has not yet been provided. As the virologist Tom Peacock from Imperial College in London explained via Twitter, the pathogen has several mutations in the spike protein with which the virus attacks human cells. Viewed individually, the changes are not particularly worrying – but viewed as a whole, they are “alarming”.
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