Social media safety should be part of the curriculum, says Hanan Ezzeldin, founder and CEO of The Family Hub
The World Health Organisation said on Monday it is tracking a few dozen cases of two new sub-variants of the highly transmissible Omicron strain of the coronavirus to assess whether they are more infectious or dangerous.
It has added BA.4 and BA.5, sister variants of the original BA.1 Omicron variant, to its list for monitoring. It is already tracking BA.1 and BA.2 - now globally dominant - as well as BA.1.1 and BA.3.
The WHO said it had begun tracking them because of their "additional mutations that need to be further studied to understand their impact on immune escape potential".
Viruses mutate all the time but only some mutations affect their ability to spread or evade prior immunity from vaccination or infection, or the severity of disease they cause.
For instance, BA.2 now represents nearly 94% of all sequenced cases and is more transmissible than its siblings, but the evidence so far suggests it is no more likely to cause severe disease. read more
Only a few dozen cases of BA.4 and BA.5 have been reported to the global GISAID database, according to WHO.
ALSO READ:
The UK's Health Security Agency said last week BA.4 had been found in South Africa, Denmark, Botswana, Scotland and England from January 10 to March 30.
All the BA.5 cases were in South Africa as of last week, but on Monday Botswana's health ministry said it had identified four cases of BA.4 and BA.5, all among people aged 30 to 50 who were fully vaccinated and experiencing mild symptoms.
Social media safety should be part of the curriculum, says Hanan Ezzeldin, founder and CEO of The Family Hub
Speed reduction system activated in Abu Dhabi due to heavy fog in some areas
With an assortment of activities, camp workshops are being customised to improve children's mind and body coordination
With summer pushing the temperatures up, Dubai Civil Defence official emphasises the importance of addressing potential hazards
The demand will be driven by growth in population, medical tourism, growing burden of chronic diseases, ageing population
The final is believed to be Chennai skipper MS Dhoni's last match as thousands of fans have returned to the stadium wearing the yellow jersey of the superstar
The newly launched unit, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, shall reach Lebanon from Dubai by mid-June 2023
Americans have a long history with various forms of subnational authoritarianism: tyrannies that sustained themselves through the political security provided by the federal structure of the US political system