Covid in Italy, the prevalence is increasing to date of the Omicron BA.5 subvariant, BQ.1, redesignated ‘Cerberus’. This was underlined by the flash survey conducted by the Higher Institute of Health (ISS) and the Ministry of Health together with the regional laboratories and the Bruno Kessler Foundation, with data relating to last November 8th. “Similarly to what was reported in other countries, this survey shows a significant increase in BQ.1, with a prevalence of 30.7%”.
In particular, according to the rapid survey, “the BQ.1 variant is of international attention due to the presence of additional mutations with respect to BA.5, (such as for example the R346T mutation characteristic of BQ.1.1), in the sequence encoding the spike protein, showing a significant growth advantage over other variants,” the experts recall.
In Italy “last November 8, the Omicron variant had an estimated prevalence of 99.8% with the subvariant Ba.5 largely predominant and a share of Omicron/Omicron recombinants, consisting of only Xbb.1, equal to 2.4% ” underlines the ISS. “The Xbb sublineage is a recombinant variant of two highly transmissible Omicron sublineages (BJ.1 and BM.1.1.1) with mutations potentially associated with immune evasion. In this investigation, a sublineage of Xbb (Xbb.1 ) was identified in 38 sequences (prevalence 2.4%) versus the 2 sequences identified in the previous investigation,” the report concludes.