The Omicron BA.2 COVID-19 sub-variant, informally dubbed "Stealth Omicron," has been present in all 50 U.S. states, knowledge exhibits.
BA.2 is considered extra contagious than the opposite Omicron kind often known as BA.1, which has been, and continues to be for a lot of international locations, the dominant model of Omicron.
In Denmark and South Africa, nonetheless, BA.2 is the dominant Omicron pressure and in different international locations its proportion continues to extend.
As of February 25, knowledge from the U.Okay.'s Well being Safety Company (HSA) confirmed that BA.2 accounted for 30.5 % of sequenced instances within the nation through the earlier week. This compares to knowledge from as much as January 31, when BA.2 accounted for simply 4.1 % of instances there.
Within the U.S., the sub-variant gave the impression to be much less prevalent in latest knowledge, although it has now been present in 49 states along with Washington, D.C., in accordance with the variant monitoring device Outbreak.information as of February 25, apart from Iowa.
Nevertheless, a glance on the GISAID virus genome database exhibits that not less than one case of BA.2 has certainly been reported from Iowa, taking the state quantity to 50.
A Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) estimate of BA.2's presence within the nation for the interval between February 13 and February 19 steered it might account for 3.8 % of instances sequenced in that interval. Different Omicron sorts accounted for the remaining instances within the nation.
As BA.2 spreads, scientists have labored to seek out out extra about it. New knowledge has revealed clues as as to if the sub-variant is extra more likely to depart folks hospitalized than BA.1, or whether or not it's extra ready to withstand vaccines.
In line with the U.Okay. authorities report out final Friday, preliminary evaluation finds no proof of larger threat of hospitalization with BA.2 when in comparison with BA.1.
As well as, evaluation of vaccine effectiveness continues to indicate no proof of decreased effectiveness in opposition to symptomatic illness with BA.2 in comparison with BA.1, the U.Okay. report said.
"Two weeks after a booster dose vaccine effectiveness in opposition to symptomatic illness with the BA.2 variant was 67 %," the report added.
Knowledge from Japan had made headlines earlier this month as a result of it steered that BA.2 may very well be able to inflicting extra extreme illness primarily based on contaminated hamsters. Nevertheless, specialists stated animal assessments usually are not all the time related to people.
One key attribute of BA.2 is its skill to reinfect individuals who have already had BA.1. Final week, a examine emerged documenting dozens of instances from Denmark wherein folks had caught BA.2 after already having BA.1, which means that they had caught Omicron twice in simply a few months or so.
Nevertheless, the researchers stated such instances had been uncommon and accounted for simply 47 out of greater than 1,739 COVID-19 reinfections studied.
In the meantime, COVID-19 instances within the U.S. proceed to fall total. CDC knowledge exhibits that the seven-day shifting common of latest instances was 68,815 on February 25—down from 105,794 per week prior.
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