Today (7 Dec.) Suphakit Sirilak Dr The Director General of the Department of Medical Sciences revealed that the results of the surveillance of stress that causes COVID-19 in the last week between 26 November – 2 December 2022 of SNP results / Removal of 435 It was found that the overall proportion of the stress BA Increased. 2.75 to 75.9% from 58.9% last week, with the infected group in the country increasing from 60.1% to 75.4%.
As a result, BA.2.75 is now the main epidemic strain in the country instead of BA.5. As for the entire genetic decoding so far, more than 856 cases of BA.2.75 and its progeny such as BA.2.75.2, BN.1, BL.2 and CH.1.1, and 13 Europeans, XBB, have been found. and 30 of their descendants in Singapore.
As for the XBC strain, which is a hybrid of Delta and Omicron BA.2 that has news of outbreaks in the Philippines, only 1 outbreak has been found and that’s because almost all of the outbreaks in Thailand are Omicron. where the delta is no longer found there is very little chance of crossing to domestic hybrids. If not detected quickly, it will eventually disappear.
For the BA.2.75 strain, there is a key mutation, G446S, on the spiked protein, which binds to a receptor in human cells. and it means avoiding immunity. The situation in countries where the proportion of the BA.2.75 strain has increased rapidly to replace BA.5 shows that there is an advantage in the epidemic. This is part of the reason why the number of infected people in the country tends to increase during this period. And it can cause people infected with previous strains to get sick again. however, no indication of the severity of the mutant strain was found.
“The department continues to monitor mutations continuously. In the process of incubating a newly discovered strain to test the immunity of Thai people to see how much they can eliminate the infection Disease prevention should continue to wear a mask, wash hands, get a booster vaccine. Especially after receiving the last dose of the vaccine for more than 4 months, ask for the booster vaccine. to increase immunity,” said Dr. Suphakit.
