Omicron BA.4, BA.5 account for nearly 13% of COVID variants in the US: CDC
Premium- As of June 4, BA.4 and BA.5 are estimated to make up nearly 5% and 8% of all the COVID variants that are currently circulating in the US
Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 account for 13% of all the Covid variants in the United States. As of June 4, BA.4 and BA.5 are estimated to make up nearly 5% and 8% of all the variants that are currently circulating, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday.
BA.4 made up 5.4% of the variants in the country for the week ending June 4, according to CDC estimates, while BA.5 made up 7.6% of the variants during the same time. The seven-day moving average of U.S. COVID-19 cases stood at 98,010 as of June 4.
The two sublineages, which were added to the World Health Organization's monitoring list in March and designated as variants of concern by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), are present in all U.S. regions.
Last month, South African scientists found that the sublineages of the Omicron coronavirus variant can dodge antibodies from earlier infection well enough to trigger a new wave.