Scientists have observed the emergence of a new derivative of the "Omicron" variant in some European countries, including Denmark, alongside its appearance in the United States of America.

A report by the scientific magazine "the-scientist" stated that what has been recently observed is a new version of the Omicron variant called "BA.2", noting that it spreads faster and does not appear in PCR tests, which led scientists to call it the "hidden Omicron".

Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, from the School of Medicine at "Northwestern University" in Chicago, USA, stated that "Among all coronavirus variants, Omicron was the fastest spreading," and scientists in India documented some differences between the Omicron variant and its derivative "BA.2", as there is a slight difference in the shape of the protein.

Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease expert at the School of Medicine at "Duke University" in the USA, described Omicron and its new derivative as "siblings from the same family, with slight differences, but most genes are similar in both."

Gabriel Leung, Dean of the School of Medicine at "University of Hong Kong", suggested that "a derivative of the Omicron variant may spread 35% faster than the original variant."

It is noted that although the Omicron variant does not cause severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, it has more than 30 mutations in the spike protein on the virus surface, which have given it the ability to greatly reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.

Earlier, World Health Organization officials said that the new coronavirus variant, which will draw global attention, will be more infectious than "Omicron", but what scientists really need to answer is whether it will be more deadly or not.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for the "COVID-19" response at the World Health Organization, said during a virtual Q&A session that the world recorded about 21 million cases last week, a new record number.