Experts today sounded the alarm over a fresh Covid wave after detecting a variant that has ‘a lot of new mutations’.
Some UK scientists — known for making gloomy predictions earlier in the pandemic — are so concerned they have advised people to mask up again.
The new sub-strain — which doesn’t have an official name but has been dubbed BA.6 — has only been spotted in two countries so far, Denmark and Israel.
But it is causing concern among some due to the number of mutations it has on its spike protein, the piece of the virus that vaccines were designed to target.
The variant may make shots less effective if it has evolved to look different enough from its ancestral strain, Omicron – though most experts argue no new strain will completely escape immunity from vaccines and prior infection.
The above shows hospitalizations in the US. These have risen by 14 percent over the last week and are up 60 percent from the record low recorded last month.
Read More: Gloomy scientists call for people to start wearing Covid masks again
