'Stealth' omicron variant BA.2 circulating in almost half of US, but CDC exercises caution: report
Fox News
There are now at least 127 known cases of the subvariant BA.2 circulating in almost half of the United States that international experts suggest is more contagious as omicron,
But Kristen Nordlund, a CDC spokesperson, in a Monday statement to The Washington Post, cautions, "Currently, there are insufficient data to determine whether the BA.2 lineage is more transmissible or has a fitness advantage over the BA.1 lineage[omicron]."
"Although the BA.2 lineage has recently increased in proportion in some countries, it remains a very low proportion of circulating viruses in the United States and globally."
In Denmark where approximately 80% of Danes are fully vaccinated and 60% have received booster shots, BA.2 has displaced omicron as the predominant variant, with the health ministry reporting more than 50,000 new COVID-19 infections this Friday, likely mostly secondary to BA.2, Troels Lillebaek, the chairman of the country’s surveillance committee on COVID-19 variants, told CNBC.