While the mask is more or less going on holiday with us tomorrow, Wednesday, the corona incidence in Portugal is increasing unusually significantly for this time of year. Also in Austria, the new Omikron sub-variant BA.4/BA.5 will soon dominate. And: A new wave of infections could build up in the summer, possibly as early as July.
The share of corona cases caused by the subvariant in Austria is currently between eight and ten percent. BA.2 is still dominant, as ORF radio said would be apparent from AGES sampling and wastewater analyses. According to the virologist and immunologist Andreas Bergthaler of the MedUni Vienna, BA.5 was found in the screenings in particular.
In countries like South Africa, Portugal and England, the subvariants have shown quite a “growth advantage”, which should mean the percentage “could double every week” in Austria, Bergthaler reported in the Ö1 “Morgenjournal”. However, the data on this are still pending.
Subvariant bypasses immune protection “a lot better”
If the current course continues, BA.4/BA.5 could have prevailed in about a month, in the summer – according to predictions by molecular biologist Ulrich Elling possibly as early as July – a new wave of infections could arise. The reason: The subvariant bypasses the immune protection “but again a lot better”.
However, the summer wave of infections shouldn’t be as dramatic as we know from winter, says Elling.
Ministry Now Relies On “Sentinel Variant Surveillance System”
Due to the massive decline in PCR testing, it is advisable to monitor the infection process elsewhere. The health ministry announced on Tuesday that it would now increasingly rely on the so-called Sentinel variant surveillance system, which is the “most complex and accurate method”.
In all federal states, representative positive samples are analyzed by sequencing and can be assigned to a virus variant. In this way, they want to be able to recognize new virus variants “immediately”.
Wastewater monitoring also remains unchanged. After all, this would concern “more than half of the population”. The program includes the 24 largest sewage treatment plants in Austria.
SPÖ: Government plan, otherwise a rude awakening
SPÖ health spokesman Philip Kucher criticized the government in the light of these warnings and demanded answers: there is no plan to increase vaccination rates in the coming summer months, nor a plan for the months in the fall, in which “a rude awakening threatens if we sleep through the summer again.” To this end, the government is putting together the last piece of a working test system.
Source: Krone
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