The most troubling aspect of the current surge is that we are unsure of the speed of infection and its lethality. Could the strains mutate into a variant that renders current vaccines obsolete?
Two new sublineages of the Omicron coronavirus variant can dodge antibodies from earlier infection well enough to trigger a new wave, but are far less able to thrive in the blood of people vaccinated against Covid-19.
An expert has warned being infected with COVID-19 for a second time will become increasingly common as new highly transmissible Omicron sub-lineages emerge.