(CTN News) – In the week ended Oct. 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that nearly 13% of circulating Coronavirus variants in the United States were Omicron BA.4.6.
According to the latest data, Omicron BA.4.6 made up nearly 22% of the cases in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, which includes the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.
Omicron BA.4.6 subvariants made up 12.8% of all COVID cases in the U.S. in the week ended on October 1, compared with 11.9% for the week ended on September 24.
The data shows 81.3% and 1.1% of the circulating variants of Omicron BA.5 and BA.4, respectively.
There’s a new COVID vaccination campaign in the United States with Omicron-tailored boosters from Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna (MRNA.O).
Only 3.5% of the 215.5 million people aged 12 or older who are eligible for the shots as they’ve completed their primary vaccination series had received the updated boosters as of Sept. 28.
The main symptoms of Omicron BA.4.6, the new variant, are as follows:
COVID-19 is so new that it is unknown if it causes any symptoms that differentiate it from Omicron BA.5.
What is known is how much it has changed since it first emerged nearly three years ago.
Initially, the pandemic was characterized by a loss of smell and taste, a continuous cough, and fatigue.
Now the main symptoms are as follows:
• Sore throat
• Headache
• Blocked nose
• Cough (with no phlegm)
• Runny nose.
As the number of cases of Omicron BA.4.6 continues to rise, it could become a bigger problem.
Severity, infectiousness, and immune evasion
Omicron infections cause less serious illness, and we’ve seen fewer deaths.
Omicron BA.4.6 should also apply. This variant hasn’t been reported to cause more severe symptoms.
In addition, omicron subvariants are more transmissible than previous variants.
The BA.4.6 variant appears to be even better at evading the immune system than BA.5.
It’s based on a preprint (a study that hasn’t been peer-reviewed), but other emerging data supports it.
In England, Omicron BA.4.6 has a relative fitness advantage of 6.55% over BA.5. In the early stages of infection, BA.4.6 grows faster.
BA.4.6 has a lower relative fitness advantage than BA.5, which ranges from 45% to 55%.
More in Omicron
