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Here's the latest variant picture with a global scope, to early November.
BA.3.* (mostly BA.3.2.2) has started showing significant signs of growth. Recent samples have mostly been reported from Germany and Australia.
Note I have rolled my reporting window forward an extra week, to capture this development. So recent samples are even thinner than usual.
Here are the sub-lineages of BA.3.*. BA.3.2.2 is driving the recent growth, rising to 2.5% frequency. It features the Spike K356T and A575S mutations.
The Variant Hunters expect that these will likely be superseded by further child lineages with added mutations, to boost transmission efficiency.
Note: as there are no other sub-lineages of BA.3.* in circulation, and further sub-lineages seem likely, I have been holding off carving out a new BA.3.2.* lineage group to see how that evolves. For example, with BA.2.86.*, it was the JN.1 sub-lineage that sparked exponential growth.
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Here are the leading countries reporting BA.3.2.*.
The frequency reported from Australia rose sharply to 19%. Community transmission has clearly been established in Germany, where the frequency also grew to 9%.
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With infection levels still quite high in Germany after a recent XFG.* wave, it鈥檚 estimated that the BA.3.2.2 infections there are running at a pace of around 90,000 per week.
That should give this variant ample opportunities to try new mutations to find the key to open up more efficient transmission.
https://x.com/Martin46er1/status/1991985617677459749?s=20
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