A new COVID-19 variant has recently been detected in several countries, including the UK, US, India, Australia and Germany.

Called BA.2.75, it’s a subvariant of Omicron. You might have also heard it called ‘Centaurus‘, the name of a constellation and given to BA.2.75 by a Twitter user.

The WHO has classified BA.2.75 as a variant of interest rather than a variant of concern. This means it’s being monitored but there’s not yet evidence it will cause problems.

The numbers of BA.2.75 infections are still relatively low. Most infections in the UK remain driven by the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. BA.5 in particular is similarly dominant in other countries where BA.2.75 has been detected.