cases to 6.7 percent in a week, while BA.2.75 and BA.2.75.2 climbed from 2.7 percent of new infections to 2.9 percent. The BF.7 subvariant jumped from 5.3 percent of U.S. Over the week ending October 22, two new variants jumped to the forefront, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, which now make up about 17 percent of cases. Other, newer variants are gaining ground. “But the good news is, it does appear that the omicron variants are less virulent than the original Wuhan strain or the delta variant.”Īround 6 in 10 cases in the United States are currently due to BA.5, according to the CDC, with BA.4.6 (a sublineage of BA.4) accounting for more than 11 percent of infections. “The bad news is these omicron subvariants are causing the majority of reinfections,” says Dean Winslow, MD, professor of medicine at Stanford University in California. Omicron has proven to be an efficient spreader of the disease, with the BA.5 and BA.4 subvariants especially good at evading protection provided by vaccines and previous infection. Since COVID-19 first appeared around three years ago, the virus has been evolving. New Omicron Subvariants May Be Driving More Reinfections Regardless of whether a person has had COVID-19 in the past, they should stay up to date on their vaccinations and boosters to get increased protection from severe illness and hospitalization,” said Hawaii State epidemiologist Sarah Kemble, MD, in a statement. “The data on reinfections underscores what we have been saying that limited immunity from previous infection only lasts so long. That suggests that just over 6 percent of total cases were reinfections.Īt the end of September, the Department of Health in Hawaii reported that the percentage of COVID-19 cases involving individuals who had a prior infection has grown to about 10 percent of new confirmed cases. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still collecting and analyzing data on reinfections, some states have presented figures that give some idea of the scope of the issue.Ī chart from New York State shows that six million New Yorkers contracted COVID-19 for the first time from January 2021 to September 2022, plus 393,000 cases of people who got repeat cases of COVID-19. In fact, with the highly infectious omicron variant in circulation, it’s becoming less unusual to have COVID-19 three times - or even four. Hugh Jackman, Drake, Kourtney Kardashian, and Jimmy Kimmel are just a few of the many who have contracted the virus twice. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (PDF) estimates that 95 percent of Americans were infected at least once by the end of August 2022.Īnd now the number of people experiencing COVID-19 more than once is growing. COVID Data Tracker: Rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths by vaccination status.Since the start of the pandemic, almost everyone in the United States has had COVID-19, whether they know it or not. Update: COVID-19 vaccine booster composition.Ĭenters for Disease Control and Prevention. Neutralization escape by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5. Hachmann NP, Miller J, Collier AY, et al. SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sublineages exhibit distinct antibody escape patterns. Gruell H, Vanshylla H, Korenkov M, et al. SARS-CoV-2 spike L452R variant evades cellular immunity and increases infectivity. Motozono C, Toyoda M, Zahradnik J, et al. COVID Data Tracker: COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States. COVID Data Tracker: Variant proportions.Ĭenters for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID Data Tracker.Ĭenters for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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