The highly transmissible Omicron BA.2 subvariant does not seem to cause significantly more severe disease compared to the original version, suggests a South African study.

Patients infected with the BA.2 subvariant appeared to have similar rates of severe disease and hospitalization as those seen with the original Omicron strain, revealed researchers from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. They looked at data from a large hospital group and the government laboratory service. The study suggested that similar to the original version, BA.2 is comparatively milder than the earlier dominant strains, such as Delta. 

Among 95,470 infections evaluated by the national laboratory, 3.6% of those infected with BA.2 were hospitalized, in comparison with 3.4% of those infected with the original strain. Among 3,058 hospitalized patients, 30.5% of those having BA.2 subvariant infection developed severe disease, compared to 33.5% of those with the original Omicron strain… (ET Healthworld – Bloomberg, February 18, 2022)