New Coronavirus News from 12 May 2022

WHO says omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants have spread to over a dozen countries [CNBC, 12 May 2022]

By Annika Kim Constantino

Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 have been detected in more than a dozen countries, helping fuel sporadic Covid outbreaks across the world, but the heavily mutated strains are still circulating at low levels, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

Less than 700 cases of BA.4 have been detected across at least 16 countries and more than 300 cases of BA.5 have been found across at least 17 countries, WHO's technical lead on Covid Maria Van Kerkhove said during a Q&A on the organization's social media platforms.

While the two sublineages don't make people more sick than the original omicron strain, they appear to be more contagious, Van Kerkhove said. She noted the WHO will monitor BA.4 an BA.5 to determine if they will eventually overtake BA.2 as the dominant strain worldwide.

"We don't know how this variant will behave, how these subvariants will behave in other countries that had a dominant wave of BA.2," Van Kerhkove said. "This is what remains to be seen."

The two subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, have high rates of detection in South Africa in particular, according to Kerhkove.

South Africa reported 395 cases of BA.4 and 134 cases of BA.5 as of May 6, the highest numbers across all countries, according to a report released by the U.K.'s Health Security Agency last week. Countries aren't sequencing the genetic data for every Covid case so actual infections are likely higher.

Just over 36 cases of BA.4 were found in Austria, 24 in the U.K., 20 in the U.S. and 17 in Denmark, according to the report. Belgium, Israel, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and Botswana all reported under 10 cases of BA.4, the report said.

Some 57 cases of BA.5 have been detected in Portugal, 52 in Germany and 17 in the U.K., according to the report. The U.S., Denmark, France, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Israel, Norway, Pakistan, Spain and Switzerland all reported less than 10 BA.5 infections, the report said.

The report noted the number of sequences is low, but "the apparent geographic spread suggests that the variant is transmitting successfully."

Tracking BA.2.12.1
Another omicron subvariant called BA.2.12.1 has been detected in 23 countries, according to Van Kerkhove.

She said there are more than 9,000 reported sequences of the subvariant, most of which comes from the U.S.

BA.2.12.1 made up about 42.6% of all sequences new cases in the U.S. during the week that ended on May 7, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BA.2 was still the dominant subvariant in the country, making up 56.4% of all new sequences cases that week.

But BA.2.12.1 was dominant in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, making up 66.3% of all new sequenced cases in those states and territories, CDC data said.

Van Kerkhove said she expects to see an increase in case detection of BA.2.12.1 worldwide due to its higher growth rate over BA.2. But BA.2.12.1 has shown no difference in hospitalization rates in comparison to BA.2, according to Van Kerkhove.

She urged governments across the world to closely monitor BA.2.12.1, BA.4, BA.5 and other subvariants that could emerge in the future, emphasizing the need to maintain Covid testing and sequencing.

"We talk to government all the time about the need to maintain the surveillance systems so that we can track this, we can trace it, and we can assess it in real time," Van Kerkhove said.

North Korea reports over 200k new coronavirus cases [Axios, 21 May 2022]

by Jacob Knutson

North Korea said Saturday that nearly 220,000 additional people have feverish, COVID-like symptoms around the country, marking its fifth consecutive daily increase over 200,000 likely cases, AP reports.

Why it matters: North Korea has an extremely low vaccination rate against COVID-19, limited health facilities and was already struggling to feed its population before the virus started to spread in late April.

The country has so far reported 2.4 million likely coronavirus infections and at least 66 deaths from the virus.

• The full extent of the country's outbreak is unknown, as experts believe it may be fabricating figures or unable to significantly diagnose a large portion of cases because it lacks testing supplies.
• President Biden, while in Seoul on Saturday meeting South Korea's new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, again offered to send vaccines directly to North Korea or through China to help the country with the massive outbreak.

The big picture: Health experts have long questioned whether North Korea had been unaffected by the virus, despite its strict pandemic border closure at the start of pandemic.

• It did not officially confirm a positive coronavirus case until May 11. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un then declared a "severe emergency incident" and launched a nationwide lockdown.
• Despite Kim's emergency declaration, he has not accepted aid proposals from foreign governments or international organizations, including vaccines offered by the U.N.-backed COVAX initiative.
• Experts fear that the strict national lockdown combined with North Korea's preexisting food insecurity and its unwillingness to accept foreign aid could lead to extremely high levels of civilian suffering.

New Coronavirus News from 16 May 2022

Characterization and antiviral susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron/BA.2 [Nature, 16 May 2022]

Authored by • Kiyoko Iwatsuki-Horimoto, Yuri Furusawa, Ryan Wright, Zhenlu Chong, Seiya Ozono, Atsuhiro Yasuhara, Hiroshi Ueki, Yuko Sakai-Tagawa, Rong Li, Yanan Liu, Deanna Larson, Michiko Koga, Takeya Tsutsumi, Eisuke Adachi, Makoto Saito, Shinya Yamamoto, Masao Hagihara, Keiko Mitamura, Tetsuro Sato, Masayuki Hojo, Shin-ichiro Hattori, Kenji M aeda,Riccardo Valdez, IASO study team, Moe Okuda, Jurika Murakami, Calvin Duong, Sucheta Godbole, Daniel C. Douek, Ken Maeda, Shinji Watanabe, Aubree Gordon, Norio Ohmagari, Hiroshi Yotsuyanagi, Michael S. Diamond, Hideki Hasegawa, Hiroaki Mitsuya, Tadaki Suzuki &
Yoshihiro Kawaoka

Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.621 (Mu) variant emerged in January 2021 and was categorized as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization in August 2021. This designation prompted us to study the sensitivity of this variant to antibody neutralization. In a live virus neutralization assay with serum samples from individuals vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines, we measured neutralization antibody titers against B.1.621, an early isolate (spike 614D), and a variant of concern (B.1.351, beta variant). We observed reduced neutralizing antibody titers against the B.1.621 variant (3.4 to 7-fold reduction, depending on the serum sample and time after the second vaccination) compared to the early isolate and a similar reduction when compared to B.1.351. Likewise, convalescent serum from hamsters previously infected with an early isolate neutralized B.1.621 to a lower degree. Despite this antibody titer reduction, hamsters could not be efficiently re-challenged with the B.1.621 variant, suggesting the immune response to the first infection is adequate to provide protection against a subsequent infection with the B.1.621 variant.

New Coronavirus News from 17 May 2022

Characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.621 (Mu) variant [Science TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE, 17 May 2022]

Authored by PETER J. HALFMANN , -MAKOTO KURODA, TAMMY ARMBRUST, JAMES THEILER , 84ARIANE BALARAMGAGE, K. MORENO H5318MOLLY, A. ACCOLA, 171KIYOKO IWATSUKI-HORIMOTO, 0XRICCARDO VALDEZ, EMILY STONEMAN , KATARINA BRAUN, SEIYA YAMAYOSHI, ELIZABETH SOMSEN, JOHN J. BACZENAS, KEIKO MITAMURA, MASAO HAGIHARA, EISUKE ADACHI, MICHIKO KOGA, MATTHEW MCLAUGHLIN, WILLIAM REHRAUER, MASAKI IMAI, SHINYA YAMAMOTO, TAKEYA TSUTSUMI, MAKOTO SAITO, THOMAS C. FRIEDRICH , SHELBY L. O’CONNOR, , DAVID H. O’CONNOR, AUBREE GORDON, BETTE KORBER, AND YOSHIHIRO KAWAOKA , FEWER Authors Info & Affiliations
AND YOSHIHIRO KAWAOKA

Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.621 (Mu) variant emerged in January 2021 and was categorized as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization in August 2021. This designation prompted us to study the sensitivity of this variant to antibody neutralization. In a live virus neutralization assay with serum samples from individuals vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines, we measured neutralization antibody titers against B.1.621, an early isolate (spike 614D), and a variant of concern (B.1.351, beta variant). We observed reduced neutralizing antibody titers against the B.1.621 variant (3.4 to 7-fold reduction, depending on the serum sample and time after the second vaccination) compared to the early isolate and a similar reduction when compared to B.1.351. Likewise, convalescent serum from hamsters previously infected with an early isolate neutralized B.1.621 to a lower degree.

Despite this antibody titer reduction, hamsters could not be efficiently re-challenged with the B.1.621 variant, suggesting the immune response to the first infection is adequate to provide protection against a subsequent infection with the B.1.621 variant.