There is another version of COVID-19 that now dominates cases in Utah and the United States.
The omicron subvariant known as BA.5 now accounts for nearly 54% of the county’s COVID-19 cases, according to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of the week ending July 2nd. For the region that includes Utah, BA .5 accounts for just over 50% of cases.
To date, a total of 792 cases of BA.5 have been identified in Utah, said Kelly Oakeson, chief scientist in the Utah Department of Health and Human Services for next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics, using the genome sequencing of the COVID-19 test state. and wastewater samples, a process that takes about 10 days.
“We’re seeing the same trend that the nation and the region are seeing,” Oakeson said, adding that he and other scientists are already looking for another version of omicron labeled BA.2.75, too. called centaurus, “which seems. to be even worse” while sweeping through India.
It’s all part of what he described as a “roller coaster pattern” of COVID-19 cases rising and falling.
“The virus hasn’t killed us, although a lot of people seem to have killed the virus,” he said. “That doesn’t mean the virus is gone. The virus is still here. It’s still infecting a lot of people. It’s still causing a lot of disease. And it’s still evolving to be even better and better to escape our immune systems and our vaccines. “.
The subvariant is believed to be even more transmissible than the so-called “stealthy omicron,” labeled BA.2 by scientists, which followed last winter’s omicron variant. It was the original omicron that brought COVID-19 infections to record levels in Utah earlier this year.
BA.5, along with another subvariant known as BA.4 that does not appear to spread so rapidly, can evade some of the antibodies produced by COVID-19 vaccines and infections, including earlier versions of omicron, according to The New York. Time.
This means that the now dominant strain can be more easily caught by people who are fully vaccinated and potentiated, or who have become infected even recently. This spring, BA.4 and BA.5 caused an increase in COVID-19 in South Africa even though 98% of the population was believed to have antibodies, the Times reported.
The severity of BA.5 and BA.4 disease, which has appeared 341 times in state genome sequencing, appears to be similar to other versions of omicron, which were not as bad as the delta variant that became. Utah and Mountain West at the country’s COVID-19 hotspot last fall, Oakeson said.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s not, it’s going to be 100% like a mild cold. That’s not true. You can still get pretty miserably sick of it. So if you don’t like being sick, give it a push and do it.” serve a mask when you’re in crowded places, ”he said.
COVID-19 vaccines and booster injections are still “very, very good” to prevent people from getting seriously ill, Oakeson said. He said there are also “multiple layers of defense” regarding the virus, including masking and social distancing that “can maintain the impact on our society and our loved ones and ourselves.”
In Utah, coronavirus cases continue to rise along with hospitalizations. As of June 30, the latest data reported by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, the average number of seven-day cases was 1,058, up 9% more than the previous week, while hospitalizations went increase by almost 16%.
Four Utah counties (Salt Lake, Summit, Tooele and San Juan) are at high community levels of COVID-19, where the federal government recommends universal masking, according to CDC case count calculations, as well as hospital admissions and capacity. by county.
Just over 45% of the country’s counties are currently at low community levels for the virus, and more than 35% at medium levels, where those who are considered most at risk of serious masks are recommended to wear masks and take other precautions. Less than 20% are at high levels.
When it comes to measuring the levels of virus transmission by the CDC. However, more than 85% of the country, including most of Utah, is at a high level. The CDC uses a lower case count threshold along with the percentage of positive tests to determine transmission levels.
Public testing for the virus has fallen across the country, and many people no longer check for the virus or rely on the results of unreported home testing kits, The New York Times noted, suggesting that has created “a crazier look at the state of the virus across the country.”
In Utah, most COVID-19 testing was delivered to private providers in late March, as part of Governor Spencer Cox’s “steady state” plan to treat the virus as the flu or other endemic diseases. The state health department, now merged with human services, also began updating Utah’s COVID-19 numbers weekly rather than daily.