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The BA.5 strain is now the most dominant COVID variant in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A new mutation of the Omicron strain -- identified as BA.2.75 -- is being described as perhaps the most contagious yet.
"Previous infections from Omicron are not giving us the same antibody protection against the newer variants," Dr. Alok Patel of Stanford Children's Health, an ABC News medical contributor, said. "You could theoretically be infected with multiple Omicron subvariants.
"The mutations in Omicron BA.5's spike protein give it the ability to be incredibly infectious and escape antibodies, and Omicron BA.2.75 has even more mutations."
So far, only three BA.2.75 cases have been confirmed in the US -- all on the West Coast. It's been identified in 11 countries, including India, where it has quickly been gaining traction.
- Earlier report - COVID-19: New Wave With 'Worst Version' Of Omicron Starting, Leading NY Doctor Says
BA.2.75 "may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection," according to scientists cited in a report in TIME Magazine.
“It’s still really early on for us to draw too many conclusions,” Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester in Minnesota, told TIME. “But it does look like, especially in India, the rates of transmission are showing kind of that exponential increase.”
The first Omicron wave happened in November 2021, marking when the United States went from being relatively strong at treating COVID cases resulting from the pre-Omicron variants to being relatively bad with the arrival of Omicron.
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