Photo: EPA/LUONG THAI LINH / EFE
Almost 100 Covid cases caused by the BA.2 subvariant have been detected of Omicron in more than 20 states.
According to the GISAID virus database, which scientists can use to share sequenced COVID samples from around the world, had been reported 92 cases of COVID-19 caused by the BA.2 subvariant of Ómicron in the United States, around 5: 15 am ET on Tuesday.
Cases were reported in about 22 states, including Arizona, California, Texas, and Washington. It should be noted that the figures are updated frequently and are subject to change.
“Although the BA.2 lineage has recently increased in proportion in some countries, it remains a very low proportion of the viruses circulating in the United States and around the world,” said Kristen Nordlund, spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. of Diseases (CDC), according to The Washington Post.
“Currently, there is insufficient data to determine if the BA.2 lineage is more transmissible or has a fitness advantage over the BA.1 lineage,” Nordlund clarified. “CDC continues to monitor the variants that circulate both nationally and internationally.”
Scientists around the world are investigating the BA.2 variant of Omicron.
“I don’t think it will cause the degree of chaos and disruption, morbidity and mortality that BA.1 caused”, said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, referring to the Omicron variant that has caused the most cases in the United States since the beginning of this year, according to USA Today.
At least 40 countries have reported cases of COVID-19 caused by BA.2, with rapid spread of this subvariant reported in Denmark and the UK.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said that BA.2 is not a “v variant of concern”, because there is “no current evidence” to suggest that the new Omicron subvariant is worse with regard to vaccine efficacy, transmission or the severity of the disease.
“So far, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether BA.2 causes more severe disease than Omicron BA.1,” he said in a statement Meera Chand, Incident Manager at the UK Health Security Agency.
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– Ómicron begins to regress in the US despite the fact that deaths continue to rise