With the Delta variant effectively burned out in most of the world, the remaining variants all trace their lineage through Omicron. Here's what we know about the Omicron subvariants
Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images Whether you’re paying attention to the latest phase of the pandemic or not, the coronavirus is still evolving, and the subvariants are starting to add up. After two new variations of the Omicron strain were recently detected in the United States, there are now at least four Omicron subvariants circulating in the country. BA.2 is the still the most dominant and has driven the rise in cases across much of the U.S., but BA.2.12.
BA.2 First detected in the U.S. in January, the BA.2 subvariant quickly became the dominant strain in America, overtaking BA.1 by late March, according to the CDC. Considered roughly 1.5 times more transmissible than the original, the variant — known as “stealth Omicron” for its difficulty to be differentiated in PCR tests — caused a slight increase in confirmed COVID cases in early April. By mid-April, BA.2 represented close to 90 percent of new U.S. cases. Thankfully, BA.
That’s the good news. What’s worrisome about BA.4 and BA.5 is that preliminary data suggests the subvariants have mutations that, according to South African research published Sunday, equip them with “extensive escape from neutralizing immunity elicited by previous infection with other variants, vaccines, or combinations of both.” The researchers conclude that “based on neutralization escape, BA.4 and BA.5 have potential to result in a new infection wave.
In the United Kingdom, a “Frankenstein variant” combining BA.1 and BA.2 known as XE has been sequenced, with 1,125 cases identified in the country by early April. And while cases have been reported in India and Japan, it does not appear to be significantly more transmissible than BA.2 and never took over as the dominant strain in the U.K. “It is the devil we know, so to speak,” Case Western Reserve University immunologist Mark Cameron told CNBC.
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