New Omicron subvariant may cause fresh wave: WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan

Swaminathan informed that WHO is also tracking derivatives of BA.5 and BA.1, which are more transmissible and immune-evasive. As the virus evolves, it is going to become more transmissible, she added.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Thursday said that some countries may see "another wave of infections" with the XBB subvariant of Omicron. But the Indian clinical scientist also added that till now no data is available from any country to suggest that these new variants are clinically more severe than the previous ones.

"There are over 300 subvariants of Omicron. I think the one that is concerning right now is XBB, which is a recombinant virus. We had seen some recombinant viruses earlier. It is very immune-evasive, which means it can overcome the antibodies. So slightly that we may see another wave of infections in some countries because of XBB," she said.

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