Another new Covid subvariant has been detected and is now spreading rapidly around the world - already making up a quarter of new cases in some countries. BF. 7, also known as BA. 5.2.1.7, is now making up 25% of cases in Belgium and 10% of cases in Denmark, France and Germany.
Dr Stuart Ray, vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics at Johns Hopkins’ Department of Medicine, told Fortune: "The same growth advantage in multiple countries makes it reasonable to think that BF. 7 is gaining a foothold."
He added: "It’s been a while since we went from Alpha to Beta to Gamma to Delta, then to Omicron. We may be complacent. This may be feeding into the notion that this is behind us.”
Kevin Kavanagh, president and founder of the patient advocacy organization Health Watch USA told Fierce Health Care: "It is anyone’s guess if BF.7 rapid growth will continue."
Erin Prater, writing for Fortune, said: "Scientists are taking notice of BF.7 because it’s making headway in an increasingly crowded field of Omicron subvariants."
CovSpectrum says a few hundreds cases have been detected in the UK so far - mostly in England.
