COVID-19 update: Why are we at a ‘tip of iceberg’ again

Israel has detected a new ‘variant’ of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, the country’s health ministry announced March 16, 2022, even as the World Health Organization (WHO) termed the latest spike in cases globally as the ‘tip of the iceberg’.

The new variant was discovered after two passengers who had landed at the Ben Gurion Airport tested positive during PCR tests. The new variant is said to be a combination of the BA.1 and BA.2 subvariants of the omicron variant.

Both passengers reported symptoms such as mild fever, headaches and muscular ailments.

However, the head of Israel’s COVID-19 response, Salman Zarka said there was no immediate cause for worry with regard to the new variant.

“The phenomenon of combined variants is well known ... At this point, we’re not concerned about the new variant leading to serious cases,” Zarka was quoted as saying by Times of Israel.

Indeed, there have been earlier instances of two variants combining to form a hybrid. For instance, there was the ‘deltacron’ variant reported last year, which was a combination of the delta and omicron variants.

Israel had also reported a case of the ‘florona’ disease this January, a double infection of COVID-19 and influenza.

Meanwhile, the WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters that the recent spike in cases in east Asia, New Zealand and eastern Europe was just the “tip of the iceberg”.

“These increases are occurring despite reductions in testing in some countries, which means the cases we are seeing are just the tip of the iceberg,” Ghebreyesus said March 15.

China has been reeling under a fresh wave of infections in the past week. The province of Jilin in the country’s northeast has emerged as the epicentre of the new outbreak.

Another part of China that is affected is Hong Kong, which is currently witnessing a wave similar to the delta wave witnessed in India at this time last year.

New Zealand, which had been lauded in the beginning of the pandemic as having held off waves, has also fallen prey to the virus. However, it has been more successful at controlling the situation than Hong Kong.

The government of President Xi Jinping has placed some 30 million people under lockdown as a mitigation measure to control the contagion.

Experts have also warned that western Europe and the United States could see a fresh wave of infections as they ease COVID-19 restrictions.