Cases of new Covid-19 variant crop up in Denmark
25 Sep 2022 10:57am
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Anadolu Agency reported Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said on Twitter on Saturday that two cases of the BJ.1 variant have turned up.
"It is entirely to be expected that BJ.1 will appear in Denmark and the Statens Serum Institute is not concerned at the moment but follows the development of variants closely," he wrote.
The subvariant was first registered in India on July 2 and has since been found in the US and in some European countries.
BJ.1, also referred to as BA.2.10.1, belongs to the omicron variant which spread quickly in Denmark earlier this year.
According to Heunicke, it was unknown how severely the new variant may spread.
"BJ.1 has more mutations in the spike protein than the subvariants of the dominant BA.5 variant but the meaning of the mutations is not known with certainty,” he added.
The ministry said it was unclear whether the infected persons contracted the virus in Denmark or abroad.
Dozens of infections of the BJ.1 variant were currently being detected worldwide with the majority of cases in India. - Bernama
