Tom Peacock: Latest News

If you have heard of the COVID variant “Centaurus", and wondering what it is, don't panic immediately. It is not a new variant but a subvariant of Omicron.  The BA.2.75 sub-variant, which has been first detected in India in early May, has been nicknamed Centaurus.  In India, BA.2.75is rapidly displacing the previously dominant BA.2 variant in many countries.

Centaurus is the nickname of a new coronavirus subvariant that has been detected in around 10 countries, including the UK.

COVID-19 cases in the UK, which has again reached record levels, with about 1 in 13 people estimated to be infected with the virus in the past week, Britain's official statistics shows. So what do we know about this new Covid variant and how infectious is it? Let's talk about it in details.

A UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) study recently revealed that currently as many are 3 hybrid COVID variants are circulating.  The two different combinations of Delta and BA.1 are XD and XF. The third is XE.

recombinant strains, an UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) study revealed that two different combinations of Delta and BA.1 are XD and XF. The third is XE.

Coronavirus variant of Omicron could be set to destroy its current version, just weeks after 400 cases were diagnosed in the UK.The new Omicron BA.2 strain has been in the UK since November but has also made appearances in Europe and India.And last week, it was classed as a “variant under investigation” by the UK Health Security Agency.The current variant, which outpaced Delta in a matter of days at the end of 2021, is known as Omicron BA 1.More than 6,400 confirmed cases of the new strain have been found in Denmark, which is now believed to be the epicentre, The Mirror reports.However, Anders Fomsgaard, chief physician and virus researcher at the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), told Danish media: “We cannot see any difference in hospitalization numbers, death rates with BA.2, so it is not something that worries us yet.“It is still a new piece in the Covid game.“Right now we should just treat it as yet another variant until new data should eventually show other results.”And virologist Dr Tom Peacock said that he is confident that the new strain is “not a Delta to Omicron change”.He claimed that this will be a “slower and more subtle” switch.He added: “That said, I would not be surprised if BA.2 slowly replaces it over the coming months with a slightly more 'optimised' mutations.”Let us know your thoughts on the changes in restrictions in the UK in the comments below“Very early observations from India and Denmark suggest there is no dramatic difference in severity.”England will be virtually restriction-free on Thursday, despite 94,397 cases of the Covid being reported in the 24-period from January 23 to 24.The UK overall has reported more than 154k deaths since the pandemic began, with 16 million cases since March 2020,

There is evidence of a new type of Omicron Covid, according to experts.

Scientists have cast doubt over the discovery of the so-called ‘Deltacron’ Covid strain, which is said to combine the Delta and Omicron variants of the virus.