Covid Is Making A Comeback

Fortune: The omicron subvariant now dominating the U.S. is ‘the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen’ 

New immune-evading Omicron subvariant BA.5 is now dominant in the U.S.—and previous heavy hitter “stealth Omicron” is now a shadow of its former self, according to federal health data released Tuesday. 

BA.5 is estimated to have caused nearly 54% of COVID infections in the U.S. last week, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Along with twin variant BA.4, it swept South Africa this spring thanks to its ability to evade immunity from both prior infection and vaccination. 

The week before that, the two variants combined made up slightly more than half of U.S. cases. But last week, BA.5 accomplished the same feat alone, without the help of BA.4, which came in third at 16.5%.  

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Update #1: CDC: BA.4, BA.5 Responsible for 70% of New Coronavirus Cases (US News and World Report)  

Update #2: New COVID variants BA.4 and BA.5 now make up over HALF of US cases as experts fear strains will fuel another summer surge despite cases only up 10% in last week (Daily Mail)  

Update #3: Experts expect subvariants to cause ‘substantial’ summer cases of COVID-19 (Boston Globe)  

WNU Editor: I live in Quebec (Canada), and our cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have exploded in the past few days .... Quebec reports jump in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations as province adds 20 deaths (CTV News).