Webinar #88 | “STEALTH” OMICRON VARIANT: What Every Frontliner Needs to Know

Webinar #88 “STEALTH” OMICRON VARIANT: What Every Front liner Needs to Know
Virtual International Conference Part 5

In the past few weeks, news of a sub-lineage of the Omicron sub-variant BA.2 has been referred to as “stealth” Omicron because 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.

The Omicron variant has been classified as a variant of concern by the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The WHO has indicated that since BA.2 is Omicron, it is a variant of concern.

Recent scientific reports point to increasing cases in Denmark, India and in the U.K. In the news, at Hong Kong's Kwai Chung public housing estate, about 5,000 people have been confined to their apartments in two of the estate’s 16 blocks since last week, while the emergence of new cases resulted in a third tower being locked down.

The Philippines reports that the majority of recent cases are “stealth” Omicron.
What does this all mean? What is the difference between the “stealth” omicron and other variants of omicron? Do we need to have new interventions to address what seems to be a more infectious version of Omicron?

In this episode of STOP COVID DEATHS, we will hear from three experts: from the United Kingdom, Dr. Martin Hibberd, London School of Tropical Medicine; from Singapore, Dr. Hsu Li Yang, Associate Dean of the College of Medicine, Singapore National University; and from the Philippines, Dr. Cynthia Saloma, Executive Director of the Philippine Genome Center. Opening Remarks will be by Dr. Eva Maria Cutiongco- de la Paz, Executive Director of the National Institutes of Health, while the Closing Remarks will be delivered by Dr. Carmencita D. Padilla, Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Manila.