Omicron BA.5 is no longer dominant in the US. Instead, new variant offshoots are now responsible for the majority of new Covid-19 infections.
Instead, a host of new sublineages – offshoots of BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 – are now responsible for the majority of new infections in this country. Dr. Peter Hotez, director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, calls these many new lineages “Scrabble variants” because they contain letters like X and Q that get high scores in the game.
7 accounts for 7.5% of newly diagnosed Covid-19. A slew of other new variants accounts for smaller pieces of the Covid-19 pie. These variants are not evenly distributed across the US. BQ.1.1 is now causing about 1 in 5 new Covid-19 infections in the Northeast, where cases and hospitalizations are rising. But that strain is causing just 3% of new Covid-19 infections in the Pacific Northwest.