Fear over new Omicron strain
published : 14 Mar 2022 at 09:10
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: Poramet Tangsathaporn
Health experts have sounded the alarm after the discovery of a new mutation of the Omicron coronavirus variant in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has been hit by its worst Covid-19 wave to date, recording the world's highest coronavirus death rate.
A doctor from a Senate committee on public health posted online that Omicron has mutated into three subvariants (BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3).
He wrote that the number of infections and deaths in Hong Kong has reached a record high which has coincided with the emergence of the BA.2.2 subvariant.
He said that high numbers of cases make mutation more likely.
There are currently about 5,000 infections and 30 deaths per million people in Hong Kong each week.
Despite the larger number of cases, the mortality rate is also higher for those infected with BA.2.2.
Most of the deaths in Hong Kong remain among the elderly and unvaccinated.
The new variant has yet to be found in Thailand.
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Vocabulary
- emergence: the process of appearing - การปรากฎออกมา
- mortality rate: the rate at which people die from something, especially a disease - อัตราการตาย
- mutate: to become physically different from other viruses, plants or animals as a result of a genetic change - กลายพันธุ์, เปลี่ยนแปลง, เปลี่ยนรูป
- mutation: a change in the genes of a plant or animal that causes it to become different from others of its type - การกลายพันธุ์
- Senate: one of the two groups of politicians who make laws in some countries, for example in the US, Australia, Canada and Thailand - วุฒิสภา
- strain: a particular type of virus, animal, insect, or plant - สายพันธุ์
- to date: until now -
- variant: a thing that is a slightly different form or type of something else - สิ่งที่ผันแปร, สิ่งที่แตกต่างกัน
