Photo: A person gets tested for covid-19, Dec. 17, 2021 in New York City. (John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx)
A more infectious strain of the covid-19 omicron variant, BA.2, now accounts for more than a third of the cases reported in the U.S. and is expected to become the dominant variant soon, according to the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.
BA.2, first detected two months ago, is spreading quickly in the Northeast and West and will soon be in all American states, data from the CDC showed. Its infection rate is said to be doubling every week.
New studies warn that the omicron BA.2 variant is more transmissible than omicron BA.1.1 — and that it is quickly overtaking the previous variant in one country after another, WSWS.org reported. A University of Tokyo study concluded that BA.2 is the most dangerous variant yet.
One study estimates that BA.2 is up to 33 percent more transmissible than BA.1 and that its spread could be a serious issue for global health in the near future.
Although BA.2 is said to be 1.5 times more contagious than the previous omicron variant BA.1, clinical data do not suggest a significant difference in disease severity, according to Medical News Today.
The world recently marked two years since covid-19 — the alpha variant — was declared a global health emergency on March 11, 2020, by the World Health Organization (WHO).
With the availability of vaccines and thanks to endemicity, the outbreak seems to have plateaued and countries across the world are easing regulations put in place to contain the deadly virus, which has so far claimed a reported 6,136,672 lives globally and 1,002,670 lives in the U.S.
But BA.2, a subvariant of omicron known as “stealth omicron,” is beginning to grow dominant in almost all parts of the U.S.. It is believed to be behind a number of covid case increases in multiple countries, including China, where millions of people have been placed under “zero-covid” lockdown measures.
Here are three things you need to know about the BA.2 omicron subvariant:
BA.2 is more transmissible than the original omicron variant, but it does not appear to cause worse illness or better evade vaccine immunity, according to WHO. Despite its increase in the U.S., key metrics such as cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to drop almost every day and are hovering around levels last seen in July before the delta variant surge. Daily reported deaths in the U.S. have ranged from 1,685 to 2,076 in March after deaths of 3,000 or more a day for much of January and February.
So far, BA.2 has not yet been declared a variant of concern on its own, but it is considered one as part of the omicron variant. Public health officials say they are closely monitoring its spread.
“People are looking very closely at whether or not BA.2 needs to be classified separately and monitored separately,” said Dr. Isaac Ghinai, medical director for lab-based surveillance at the Chicago Department of Public Health, in an NBC Chicago interview.
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“But even without that, it is a variant of concern; it’s being monitored very closely at the local levels, at the state levels and at the national levels.”
As most covid-19 restrictions are relaxed across the world, the numbers of infections have inched higher in recent days. Cases are expected to rise in the next few weeks due to the highly-contagious BA.2 subvariant, and by people largely abandoning masks and gathering in bigger groups.
“I would expect that we might see an uptick in cases here in the U.S. because, only a week or so ago, the CDC came out with their modification of the metrics for what would be recommended for masking indoors, and much of the country right now is in that zone, where masking indoors is not required,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told KGTV.
Photo: A person gets tested for covid-19, Dec. 17, 2021 in New York City. (John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx)
