There is no evidence that the Omicron subvariant could evade protection given by coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines, an infectious disease expert said.
In a Facebook post, Dr. Edsel Salvana explained that the Omicron subvariant BA.2, nicknamed the "stealth Omicron" is still a sublineage of the Omicron variant and "still considered Omicron and behaves like Omicron."
"There is currently no evidence it is more aggressive or more likely to evade vaccines. The best part? Just like Omicron it is milder in fully vaccinated, and is less deadly than Delta," Salvana stressed.
He also called on the public to listen to reputable sources and refrain from panicking.
"Wait for to say something before you jump the gun," he added.
Omicron subvariant
At least 426 cases of the "stealth Omicron" have been identified in England. The subvariant has been described by the United Kingdom Health Security Agency as "a variant under investigation."
According to a report by The Guardian, it has been dubbed as the "stealth Omicron" because it cannot be distinguished from other variants using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
"The stealth variant has many mutations in common with standard Omicron, but it lacks a particular genetic change that allows lab-based PCR tests to be used a rough and ready means of flagging up probable cases," the report read.
"The variant is still detected as coronavirus by all the usual tests, and can be identified as the Omicron variant through genomic testing, but probable cases are not flagged up by routine PCR tests that give quicker results," it further read.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Omicron variant has three main substrains: BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3 and as of Dec. 23, 99 percent of the cases WHO sequenced were BA.1.