Coronavirus infections are again trending up in the United States, and about all of them are amid more contagious BA.2 subvariant. BA.2 is also now the dominant virus strain worldwide. According to the latest data from the U.S. CDC, 86 percent of the new infections countrywide last week were caused by BA.2 subvariant. But one thing is still unknown: how high that mountain is going to grow, according to an infectious disease expert at JHU (Johns Hopkins University).
According to COVID-19 tracking experts, no one anticipates an extreme nearly as high as the previous one, when the highly infectious variant of SARS-CoV-2 tore through the population. But health experts caution that the new wave, caused by BA.2 that is believed to be nearly thirty percent more infectious, will rush through the country.
Moreover, experts are concerned that hospital admissions are already increasing in some areas of the North-eastern US and will surge in many states in the upcoming weeks. Additionally, the infections wave would be bigger than it appears, according to the experts, because informed figures are immense undercounts as more individuals test for COVID-19 at-home without notifying the US COVID officials about their infections.
In spite of contagious BA.2’s almost finished seizure from the other circulating subvariants, BA.1 & BA.1.1, American hospital admissions are at best low levels, and they continue to decline. Moreover, fatalities amid COVID-19 continue to decrease.
Northeast US Has the Most BA.2 Transmission
Although those infection figures tend to trail behind the COVID-case counts, America has not faced a shoot-up in cases. However, this’s still an open query that whether that is possible to happen. Even Chief Medical Advisor to the U.S. President, Dr. Anthony Fauci, does not know what Omicron sub-variant BA.2 will do.
Fauci said that they certainly see the start of an increase in the number of new cases. However, he added that it counts on how high they go up in the latest surge, and it depends on whether the rise is linked with an increase in severe disease caused by the lethal Coronavirus. He continued: he couldn’t say where they’re now because they’re transitioning.
Across the country, Coronavirus infections have increased 24 percent from where they were about half a month ago, and America is now averaging nearly thirty-eight thousand infections daily. This’s a jump from last week, possibly because the southeasternmost US State of Florida recently reported a fourteen-day backlog. Fortunately, it is one of the lowest one-day cases since July.
However, the picture is more mixed state by state, and infections are increasing in twenty-five states, holding steady in 9 states and falling in sixteen others. COVID-19 cases are fastest in the Northeastern US areas, where BA.2 accounts for most of the new cases.