Korea reports third case of Centaurus Covid variant

People wait in line to get tested for Covid-19 at a testing center in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, Friday. [YONHAP]

Another confirmed case of Centaurus, the BA.2.75 variant of Covid-19 which is known to be more resistant to immunity than its predecessors, was confirmed in Korea Friday. This brings the country's total to three.

“One additional case of the BA.2.75 variant has been confirmed, and we are currently investigating the case,” said an official from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

The third confirmed case was found in a man in his 50s living in Incheon who had received his third round of inoculation. He developed symptoms on July 18 and was first confirmed with Covid-19 the next day. The patient is currently being treated at home and has mild symptoms.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced that there was no confirmed epidemiological relationship between the third case and the two preceding cases of the variant.

The first confirmed case of Centaurus in Korea was confirmed on July 14, in a patient in his 60s in Incheon who had no recent overseas travel history. The second case was found Thursday, in a foreigner living in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, who had arrived from India on July 5.

BA.2.75 has eight more spike protein mutations compared to the BA.2 variant or Stealth Omicron, which means that it binds to cells more effectively and evades antibodies formed by vaccines. It appears to spread even faster and evade vaccine-acquired immunity better than BA.5, which is now the dominant variant in Korea.

The Centaurus variant was first discovered in India in May this year and has been spreading rapidly throughout Europe and the United States.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]