The New York State Department of Health on Thursday confirmed the first cases of the so-called “stealth” Omicron variant.
The department said it was aware of four cases of the BA.2 subvariant between January 7 and 12, which scientists say is somewhat harder to detect than the original version of Omicron.
The World Health Organization maintains that BA.2 is not a “variant of concern,” meaning that there is no current evidence to suggest that this new subvariant will worsen COVID-19 transmission, disease severity, or efficacy. of vaccines and public health efforts such as masking and social distancing.
So far, BA.2 has been detected in at least 49 countries, according to COV-lineages.org. It has been sequenced in at least 20 states, including New Jersey and Connecticut.
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