Omicron’s more transmissible strain, BA.2, is now the dominant Covid variant here in the United States. It has increased from 35% to 55% in the last week. Data from the CDC. That’s a remarkable 80% jump in just seven days.
The Northeast region that encompasses Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts and has a population exceeding 55 million people, includes New York, New Jersey and Vermont. More than 70% of all new cases are now handled by BA.2. That’s up from just over 50% the week before and 38% the week before that.
A January report by the Statens Serum Institut (which operates under the auspices of Danish Ministry of Health) found that the February report was late. “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. saw in early February of this year, Omicron’s increased transmissibility can still create a wave of deaths equal to or surpassing that of Delta by the sheer number of infections alone.