Glove makers, hospitals back in vogue as Omicron continues to evolve with over 300 sublineages

Glove makers, hospitals back in vogue as Omicron continues to evolve with over 300 sublineages

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 27): Shares in glove makers advanced in the mid-morning on Thursday (Oct 27) after the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Covid-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said the Omicron variant of Covid-19 had continued to evolve, with more than 300 sublineages.

At the time of writing, Careplus Group Bhd had risen 4.49% or two sen to 46.5 sen, Top Glove Corp Bhd added 1.99% or 1.5 sen to 77 sen, Supermax Corp Bhd gained 0.54% or half a sen to 93.5 sen, Hartalega Holdings Bhd was up 1.45% or three sen to RM2.10, Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd added 0.82% or one sen to RM1.23, and Adventa Bhd was up 2.11% or 1.5 sen to 72.5 sen.

Meanwhile, Pharmaniaga Bhd rose 2.8% or 1.5 sen to 55 sen, IHH Healthcare Bhd added 0.34% or two sen to RM5.79, and KPJ Healthcare Bhd was up 1.88% or 1.5 sen to 81.5 sen.

In her Twitter feed on Wednesday, Van Kerkhove said the main concerns are the increased growth rate and risk of reinfection.

“So far, we have not detected changes in severity, but available data is limited,” she said.

Van Kerkhove said that at present, Omicron variants of concern are dominant around the world, with almost 80% of the sequences reported being the BA.5 and its sublineages.

"XBB is a recombinant of actually two BA.2 sublineages, specifically the BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75.

"It's one of the more than 300 sublineages of Omicron that we and our partners are tracking worldwide," she said.

She added that this is receiving attention and rightly so, because the experts see a growth advantage for XBB, as well as an increase in case detections in some countries.

http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/glove-makers-hospitals-back-vogue-omicron-continues-evolve-over-300-sublineages