In a recent news headline CNBC writes “Omicron BA.2 subvariant will soon dominate in U.S., but Fauci doesn’t expect another surge”. the news adds “Omicron’s more contagious subvariant, BA.2, has more than doubled in prevalence over the past two weeks in the U.S. and now represents more than 34% of Covid-19 infections that have undergone genetic sequencing,” citing data from the CDC.

According to the Reuters News, a third of the newly reported Covid-19 cases in the US are cause by Coronavirus Omicron BA.2 subvariant.

Referring to the recent reporting from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Reuters News writes “In the Northeast, including New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, Omicron BA.2 now makes up more than half the cases. It accounted for 35% of U.S. infections for the week ending March 19. That compares with 22.3% for the week ending March 12, which was revised down from 23.1%”.

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC recently that he wouldn’t expect any surge that we saw last summer. “The bottom line is we’ll likely see an uptick in cases, as we’ve seen in the European countries, particularly the U.K. Hopefully we won’t see a surge — I don’t think we will.”

I think the one concern and where people need to remain vigilant is that as we have relaxed many restrictions around masking and gathering, there is a potential opportunity for BA.2 or any variant to gain a foothold.

– Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of division of infectious diseases at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (source: Reuters News)

• As BA.2 grows in the US, experts look to other countries to predict its impact here
• Omicron BA.2 subvariant will soon dominate in U.S., but Fauci doesn’t expect another surge
• A third of U.S. COVID now caused by Omicron BA.2 as overall cases fall

Referring to data from Johns Hopkins University, CNN Health writes that Covid-19 is already spreading in about 19 states. “Some of the states seeing increases—New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Jersey are in northeastern regions where the CDC estimates that BA.2 is now causing more than half of new Covid-19 cases.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reportedly told the Washington Post “I would not be surprised at all if we do see somewhat of an uptick. I don’t really see, unless something changes dramatically, that there will be a major surge.”

According to William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, “It is more contagious than Omicron’s BA.1, which was already an extremely contagious virus with a basic reproduction number, or R-naught, of about 8. […] The reason why Omicron BA.2 and BA.1 are a problem at all are the sheer numbers of infections they cause.”

CNN Health writes “BA.2 is technically classified as a part of the Omicron family of viruses, but genetically this strain is very different, with about 40 mutations separating it from its cousin, BA.1. That makes it about as distinct from the original Omicron as Alpha, Beta, and Delta were from each other.”