The more transmissible strain of Omicron, BA.2, is now the dominant Covid variant in the United States. In just the last week, it has risen from 35% of all new cases genetically sequenced to 55%, per CDC data.
That’s a remarkable 80% jump in just seven days.In the swath of the Northeast that includes Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine and has a population of about 55 million people, BA.2 now accounts for more than 70% of all new cases.
That’s up from just over 50% the week before and 38% the week before that.A late January report from the Statens Serum Institut, which operates under the auspices of the Danish Ministry of Health, found that “BA.2 may be approx.
30% more transmissible than BA.1 (the original Omicron).” Some analyses since then have claimed the variant’s transmissibility advantage is even higher.The good news is that the Omicron strains are much less virulent than Delta, but as the U.S.
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