According to CNET, as the United States hovers at a once insurmountable milestone - 1 million covid-19 deaths, cases and hospitalization rates across the United States are rising The newer and more infectious Omicron variant is responsible for the current rise The number of people who have "relaxed" in winter is still lower than that of normal life, although the number of such measures is still rising.
According to a federal official interviewed by the New York Times, 100 million Americans may be infected with covid-19 this fall and winter, stimulated by indoor parties and decreased immunity. Although this is less than the number of people affected by the Omicron virus last winter, the estimate (based on an unspecified model, the New York Times reported) found that the Omicron family strain could infect about 30% of the U.S. population.
According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on May 5, Omicron and all its forms are currently causing 100% of covid-19 cases in the United States. According to the CDC, there are several subtypes of Omicron, but ba 2 (originally known as "invisible Omicron") and ba 2.12.1 constitutes the majority of covid-19 cases in the United States. (BA. 1 is the "primitive" Omicron that led to the surge of winter cases).
The CDC said that as of May 4, the number of cases had increased by about 21% compared with the previous seven-day average. Hospitalization also increased by about 17%. Dr. Eric Topol, director of Scripps Research transformation Institute, tweeted that the current "rise rate" is similar to the growth of delta variants last summer, but remains relatively low.
A CDC report recently confirmed that nearly 60% of Americans and up to 75% of children were infected with covid-19 as of February 2022. The researchers examined infection induced antibodies, which are different from vaccine induced antibodies, Dr. Kristie Clarke, a researcher of the study, said in a media conference. She added that previous infections were not necessarily equivalent to immunity to covid-19 because researchers did not measure protective antibody levels against covid-19 reinfection or serious diseases.
The following is about ba 2 and other versions of Omicron need to know:
What are subtype strains or sublines?
Variants are composed of multiple lineages and sub lineages. According to CDC, each variant has a "parent line", followed by other lines. You can think of it as a family tree. As the virus spreads from person to person, it mutates, but not all mutations change the characteristics of the virus in a meaningful way.
The Omicron variant and its sub lineage make the virus more infectious and can infect more people, but it causes fewer serious diseases on average than the delta variant.
Genome monitoring can find variants and sub lineages. Scientists in South Africa were able to quickly identify Omicron as a new variant last winter because of the way it was presented through PCR tests. The original Omicron will produce a falling signal or mark in the test to distinguish it from Delta, which was the dominant variant before Omicron. However, BA 2 without the same signal, it is called S gene target failure. This makes it more covert, although genome sequencing (which occurs in about 10% of covid-19 PCR tests in the United States) will detect all Omicron variants and general coronavirus variants.
What are the current symptoms of covid variants?
Currently available data show that ba 2 will not cause more serious disease than the original Omicron variant, even if it is more transmissible. (who notes that the difference in transmission between primitive and invisible Omicron is less than that between Delta and Omicron).
There is no research to show that ba 2 causes different symptoms from the original Omicron variant. For many people infected with covid-19 (especially those who are fully vaccinated or immunized), covid-19 symptoms are similar to cold symptoms, such as sore throat, runny nose and fatigue.
BA. 2.12.1 is it more serious? Will the vaccine work?
Taking into account all available real-world data, who concluded that, despite the latter's growth advantage, in Omicron ba 1 and ba There was no reported difference in severity between 2.
Dr. Rochelle walensky, director of CDC, said at a media conference that in Ba 2 and ba Between 2.12.1, the newer version is considered to have about 25% dissemination, but more evaluation and research are under way.
Like the original Omicron, BA 2 means that more fully vaccinated people will experience breakthrough infections. But those who are fully vaccinated, especially the booster vaccine against covid-19, "continue to have strong protection against serious diseases," walensky said at the briefing.
The who said in a statement on March 8 that although some people have been infected with covid-19 caused by Omicron, they have contracted ba 2, but early data showed that BA was infected 1 pair ba 2 provides "substantive protection", at least for a period of time.