BA.2: What to know about world’s dominant Omicron sub-variant

A patient in a biocontainment unit is carried on a stretcher at the Columbus COVID 2 Hospital in Rome [File: Alessandra Tarantino/AP]

BA.2, a sub-variant of the Omicron coronavirus variant, has now become dominant globally, representing nearly 86 percent of all sequenced cases, according to the World Health Organization.

First detected in the early days of January, the sub-variant is even more transmissible than its highly contagious Omicron siblings, BA.1 and BA.1.1.