By Sue-Ann Wayow
KEY attention is being placed on the Ba.5 subvariant of the Omicron Covid-19 virus, as it is rapidly becoming one of the most transmissible subvariants.
This is according to Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram who said the Omicron variant continues to be the dominant variant of concern in Trinidad and Tobago with cases of the Ba.4 and Ba.5 subvariant.
To date there have been five variants of concern globally, the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and the Omicron.
Recently, there was one case detected of the Delta variant in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Parasram said.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual Covid-19 update on Wednesday, of the subvariants of Omicron, he said Ba.2 currently remained the dominant sub lineage showing up in 45.5% of recent samples.
Dr Parasram said, “Ba.4 was detected prior to Ba.5 and only accounts for 9.1% of the recent Omicron samples and Ba.5 seems to be the most infectious of the lot and was detected in 41% of last week’s samples noting that it was only first detected a week prior to that.”
He said, “It seems to be gaining speed and overtaking Ba. 2 and Ba. 4 in terms of the national picture and the international picture very quickly. We keep an eye and we update the population as it progresses.”
On Monday, during a press conference Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said with the new information concerning the sub-variants, if necessary, Government will revert to mandatory mask wearing to prevent the spread.
The mandate was lifted on Saturday and took effect on Sunday.
