VICTORIA health authorities confirmed that the Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12.1 has been traced in wastewater in Melbourne, Australia, reported Xinhua news agency.

The state Health Department confirmed the finding yesterday, saying that authorities will prioritise the sequencing of PCR samples from Covid-19 cases in the catchment area to get a better understanding of the sub-variant’s spread.

“Early evidence suggests that it is more transmissible than BA.2, but does not cause more severe disease.”

BA.2.12.1 is currently on the rise in the United States, which makes up nearly 30% of sequences identified in the country, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. It is also fast spreading through Europe.

The detection comes only a day after the first case of another Omicron sub-variant, BA.4, was detected in neighbouring state New South Wales. The carrier is a traveller from South Africa.

The simultaneous arrival of the two strains is already causing concern among medical experts, such as epidemiologist Professor Adrian Esterman from University of South Australia.

“BA.2.12.1 now accounts for 25% of cases in the US, while BA.4 is rapidly becoming the dominant strain in South Africa,” Esterman tweeted yesterday.

“Increasing case numbers will inevitably result in increased hospitalisations and more people with long-Covid. This is real and happening now.”

Speaking to Channel 7 News the same day, he said BA.4 “appears to escape the immune system a bit better than BA.2, so that means people who have already been infected can be re-infected more easily and vaccinated folk can be infected more easily”.

“This comes just at the stage where we are removing all our public health measures – that is the bad news.” – Bernama, April 30, 2022.