China’s CDC (Center for Disease Control) has shared Covid genomic data with the WHO, the global health organisation said on Wednesday. For locally-acquired infections, it said, data presented were based on more than 2000 genomes collected and sequenced from 1 December 2022. The WHO said that the China CDC analysis showed a predominance of Omicron lineages … Read more
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed Friday it is now tracking a new variant of concern around the U.S. known as XBB, which has grown to make up an estimated 3.1% of new infections nationwide. The strain’s prevalence has grown furthest so far in the Northeast, according to the agency’s weekly estimates. More … Read more
A person receives a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 22, 2021. Andrew Kelly | Reuters The omicron BQ coronavirus subvariants have risen to dominance in the U.S. as people gather and travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, putting people with compromised immune … Read more
With Covid daily cases up 52% since the beginning of November, Los Angeles County today returned to “strongly recommending” that people wear masks in all indoor public settings. The recommendation falls short of a mandate, but masks are still required indoors at health-care and congregate-care facilities, for anyone exposed to the virus in the past … Read more
Several new strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can evade both vaccine-derived and infection-derived immunity Several increasingly common new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are capable of evading both vaccine- and infection-derived immunity, according to a study spearheaded by the director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University reviewed by Time magazine this … Read more
Omicron subvariants resistant to key antibody treatments will soon make up a majority of new Covid infections in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 now make up 44% of new Covid cases compared to 32% last week, according to CDC data. These subvariants will likely … Read more
The U.S. faces at least seven different versions of Covid-19 omicron as the nation heads into winter when health officials are expecting another wave of viral infections. Although the omicron BA.5 variant remains dominant in the country, it is starting to lose some ground to other versions of the virus, according to data from the … Read more
photoman/iStock via Getty Images New data released by the CDC indicates that the number of COVID-19 cases attributed to variants BQ.1 and BQ1.1. — dubbed “escape variants” as COVID treatments may be ineffective against them — is rising. For the week ending Oct. 15, the data shows that each variant accounted for 5.7% each of … Read more
For the second week running, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer has noted a plateau in the levels of Covid detected in the county’s wastewater system. While a plateau in itself is not worrying, the fact that the numbers had been going down and now have stalled is of concern to officials. “This … Read more
The BA.5 variant that dominated the summer wave of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations has now fallen to 81.3% of new cases, according to estimates released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three rival strains – the BF.7, BA.2.75, and BA.4.6 variants – have now climbed to make up around 1 in 5 new … Read more