Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Friday said that the BA.2 subvariant of the COVID-19 Omicron variant is suspected to be in Guyana.
Anthony made the announcement during a COVID-19 update where he disclosed that the suspicion that the milder but more transmissible variant is here is based on the number of persons being frequently hospitalised.
The BA.2 variant is referred to as “stealth Omicron” by the American Medical Association, which has said it has genetic mutations that could make it harder to distinguish from the Delta variant using PCR tests as compared to the original version of Omicron.
“…So, more than likely what we have seen in the Americas is the circulation of the BA.2 and the BA.1.2.1.2 so that’s something that we probably have here in Guyana. It’s much milder but its more transmissible…it can cause hospitalization, especially for persons who are older and unvaccinated and we are seeing a few cases of persons getting sick and requiring hospitalization. But it is not causing as much hospitalization as previous variants so we will have to be on the lookout for this and to make sure that people take the relevant precautions,” he said.
Anthony also assured that samples will soon be sent overseas for testing to be done in order to confirm whether the sub-variant is present.
“We’ll like to confirm what variant is circulating so obviously we will be taking samples and trying to verify with CARPHA [the Caribbean Public Health Agency] and other institutions what variants are circulating,” he added.
He noted that due to the milder symptoms which have been noticed, he’s sure that it is the BA.2 sub-variant which is present in the country.
“…From the clinical picture of the persons that we are seeing, the milder version of the disease and so forth, we have a fairly good idea that it’s the BA.2 that is circulating.”
Since the start of the pandemic, the ministry was able to confirm the presence of the Delta and Omicron variants here. The Delta variant was confirmed in December of 2021, while the Omicron variant was confirmed in March of this year.
