Explainer: What is the COVID BA.5 variant and why is it reinfecting so many people?--Reuters

Explainer: What is the COVID BA.5 variant and why is it reinfecting so many people? BA.5, part of the Omicron family, is the latest coronavirus variant to cause widespread waves of infection globally. Jennifer Rigby,Julie Steenhuysen Reuters

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Like its closely related sibling, BA.4, BA.5 is particularly good at evading the immune protection afforded either by vaccination or prior infection.

For this reason, "BA.5 has a growth advantage over the other sublineages of Omicron that are circulating," Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, told a news briefing on Tuesday.

For many people, this means that they are getting re-infected, often even a short time after having COVID-19. Van Kerkhove said the WHO is assessing reports of re-infections.

"We have ample evidence that people who've been infected with Omicron are getting infected with BA.5. No question about it," said Gregory Poland, a virologist and vaccine researcher with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

If that seems particularly common now, it could be simply because so many people got Omicron, researchers have suggested.

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