Breaking: a new, aggressive Omicron variant reached Hungary

Cecília Müller, the Head of the National Centre for Public Health, just announced that the new, more contagious variant of Omicron has appeared in Hungary. The dominant variant is still the “regular” Omicron, which has triggered a new wave of the pandemic in Hungary.

As 24.hu reported, in an interview with TV2, on Friday morning, Cecília Müller revealed that the BA2 version of Omicron has reached Hungary. However, as Müller said, there is no reason to be alarmed by this variant. As far as we know at the moment,

it has the same clinical behaviour as the “regular” Omicron variant, and it does not cause more serious pathology, nor does it attack other organs.

She added that in European countries, the proportion of this BA2 variant ranges from 1 to 15%.

• Read also: Breaking – Government modified validity of immunity certificates!

According to Napi.hu, as of Friday, 16,435 new coronavirus cases had been confirmed, and 105 patients had died. A day ago, 17,894 new infections and 88 deaths were reported. Simultaneously, the number of infected people requiring hospital care has increased, which has been accompanied by an increase in the number of patients needing ventilators.

According to 24.hu’s article, the BA2 version is spreading slightly faster than the already fast-spreading Omicron. The BA2 was first found in China a few weeks ago and is generally believed to have originated from India, as Portfolio.hu recently reported on this variant.

Müller also said in the statement today that, according to our current knowledge, this new variant does not seem to change the current epidemic situation,

summarises Portfolio.hu.

• Read also: GP, nurses issued false vaccine certificates – even police bought some

Regarding the Omicron variant, Müller said that it is getting further divided into sub-variants, and this new variant is the so-called “stealth Omicron”. In practice, this means that the variant can still be detected with conventional PCR tests, but there are specific tests that this new variant bypasses, according to Portfolio.hu. However, as mentioned above, this new variant is currently known not to cause more severe symptoms and has the same clinical behaviour as the regular Omicron.

Müller says the new wave of outbreaks caused by Omicron may be on the wane: a high number of cases are being detected, but fewer every day, although the concentration of the coronavirus hereditary material is still increasing in the wastewater.

Nevertheless, she expects that next week, “we may see the end of the tunnel”.

Read also 5th wave soon to be past its peak in Hungary?

Source: 24.hu, Napi.hu, Portfolio.hu