A surge in COVID-19 cases in South Africa fueled by two new subvariants of omicron has raised concerns that they may spread elsewhere,the New York Times reported. The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants have led to a tripling of cases in the last week and an increase in hospitalizations. The BA.2 variant remains dominant in the U.S. and in other places and it’s not clear if the two subvariants will create new waves of cases outside of South Africa.
The news comes as COVID cases continue to rise again in the U.S. after their steep decline early in the year, driven by the BA.2 variant of omicron, and two other subvariants that appear to be even more infectious. The two, named BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1, were highlighted by health officials in New York State recently. The U.S. is averaging 56,700 cases a day, according to a New York Times tracker, up 51% from two weeks ago. The country is averaging 17,248 hospitalizations a day, up 16% from two weeks ago, but still close to the lowest since the first weeks of the pandemic. The daily death toll has fallen below 400 to 320 on average.
On a global basis, total cases are now above 513.8 million. Total deaths are above 6.23 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, with the U.S. still leading the way with 81.4 million cases and 993,733 deaths.
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