EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS OF THE OMICRON SUBLINEAGES BA.5

Abstract

The five Omicron sublineages are BA.1, BA.2, BA.3, BA.4 and BA.5. Sublineages BA.4 and BA.5 have the closest evolutionary relationship with a distance of 0.000782 forming group BA.4-5. Group BA.4-5 and sublineage BA.2 has a close evolutionary relationship with an average distance of 0.00301. Group BA.4-5 and group BA.1-3 has a distant evolutionary relationship with an average distance of 0.014288. All five sublines BA.1-5 and the Original strain are the most distantly related with an average distance of 0.0237614. The Omicron sublineages can be classified into two subtypes BA.2-4-5 and BA.1-3, the average distance of which is 0.012995