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Health officials in the US are calling the BA.2 a “subvariant of concern" as countries overseas have seen the number of new cases spiking in China and parts of Europe.
With the BA.2 variant beginning to spread in Europe and Asia, prompting another new rise in infections and new hospitalizations, some are concerned that the US could see a similar pattern, with seniors at the greatest risk of becoming superspreaders for the variant.
Officials noted that new samples suggest the “stealth” variant is accounting for approximately 25 percent of new COVID-19 infections, up. from around one-tenth a week ago.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said that he and other health officials are expecting “an uptick in cases” but it is unlikely that the country sees massive surges similar to the emergence of previous variants.
“I would expect that we might see an uptick in cases here in the United States because, only a week or so ago, the CDC came out with their modification of the metrics for what would be recommended for masking indoors, and much of the country right now is in that zone, where masking indoors is not required,” he added.
Israel’s Ministry of Health announced that it has recorded multiple cases of the new strain, which combines the two sub-variants - dubbed BA.1 and BA.2 - during PCR testing of passengers arriving at the Ben Guiron airport.
Health officials in Israel said that “the variant is still unknown around the world,” according to a statement released by the Ministry of Health.
"The two cases of the combined strain, which have been discovered so far, suffered from mild symptoms of fever, headaches, and muscle dystrophy, and do not require a special medical response.”
The new strain in Israel comes as COVID-19 numbers overseas are on the rise, including in the UK, where new infections were up 48 percent, and hospitalizations jumping 17 percent jump week-to week.
More than half of the countries in the European Union have also seen daily cases spiking, including a surge of 48 percent in the Netherlands and 20 percent in Germany over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University.
According to the Isreal Ministry of Health, of the limited number of cases of the new virus being recorded, some have been in people traveling to the country from Europe, and there is no communal spread.
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