Omicron sub-variant suspected to be driving Guyana’s new COVID-19 infections

Frank Anthony

Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Friday said that the BA.2 subvariant of the COVID-19 Omicron variant is suspected to be in Guyana.

Anthony made the announcement during a COVID-19 update where he disclosed that the suspicion that the milder but more transmissible variant is here is based on the number of persons being frequently hospitalised.

The BA.2 variant is referred to as “stealth Omicron” by the American Medical Association, which has said 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.