New COVID Subvariant In All 50 States, ‘May Be Even More Contagious Than Omicron’

It doesn’t have a name, but it’s everywhere.

Just as Omicron fades, a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 has now been detected in every U.S. state, according to a new report. The variant, which didn’t get its own Greek letter name and is known simply as Omicron BA.2, is more contagious than its brother, but vaccines are effective against it.

The subvariant was first found in Europe in January and has already spread across the world “becoming the leading strain behind new coronavirus infections in at least 18 countries,” the report by Fortune magazine said.

“A study from Denmark, where stealth Omicron rapidly became the dominant lineage of the virus, sampled 263 cases of COVID reinfection from stealth Omicron in the country, and found that reinfections were nearly four times as common for people who had recovered from the Delta variant than those who had come down with Omicron,” Fortune said. “The good news from the Danish study is that prior infection with Omicron and vaccination seemed to be enough to provide abundant protection to the new strain.”- READ MORE