#New COVID variant

WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove warned against theories that the virus will continue to mutate into milder strains that make people less sick than earlier variants. The virus will continue to evolve before it settles into a pattern, said Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO's director of emergency programs. Pfizer and BioNTech...

Cases of omicron BA.2 have been reported in at least four states – California, New Mexico, Texas and Washington – and on three other continents.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WPEC) — As omicron cases fall across some parts of the United States, international health officials are now warning about a new variant. "BA.2" is a sub-variant of omicron and has been labeled “variant under investigation" by health officials in the United Kingdom who say they are now monitoring the newest strain.

BA.2 numbers around the world are rising.

Scientists and health officials around the world are keeping their eyes on a descendant of the omicron variant that has been found in at least 40 countries, including the United States. This version of the coronavirus, which scientists call BA.2, is widely considered stealthier than the original version of omicron because particular genetic...

The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service. Free N95 masks are now available at some U.S. stores as part of the White House’s plan to hand out 400 million of them from the Strategic National Stockpile. Midwest grocer Meijer said Monday...

The World Health Organization maintains that BA.2 is not a 'variant of concern.'. Even as the omicron COVID-19 variant continues to sweep the globe, scientists are now monitoring a new mutation of omicron, dubbed BA.2. The World Health Organization maintains that BA.2 is not a "variant of concern," meaning there...

Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the journalism that matters most to you. In the short time since it was first detected in South Africa last November, Omicron has quickly usurped Delta as the world’s dominant variant of COVID-19. Omicron’s rapid spread has sparked record waves of infection in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Yet despite its high transmissibility, Omicron has appeared less deadly than its predecessor, with hospitalization rates among vaccinated people remaining relatively low.

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — A new coronavirus subvariant has been identified in Washington, even as states across the country continue to deal with a surge in omicron cases. The subvariant is known as BA.2, a mutation of the omicron variant. “We’re aware of that, and what we’ve seen with...

A new COVID variant – labeled as a “variant under investigation” by authorities in the U.K. - has been reported. The variant, BA.2 has been found in 40 countries, including the U.S., U.K. India, Germany and Australia, is linked to more than 8,000 cases worldwide. According to The Hill, not much is known about the variant, including its transmissibility and severity. It is unclear how current vaccines are responding to the variant.

New COVID-19 variant called IHU was discovered in Southern France. As of right now only 12 people reportedly contracted the variant.

In Durban, South Africa, scientists led by Dr. Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) at Stellenbosch University, were conducting routine genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 from different regions when they noticed worrying variations in genomes clustered in Gauteng Province. They alerted their colleagues around the country and within their research network and simultaneously ramped up their analysis, eventually identifying additional examples of viruses with the new cluster of mutation in samples from other labs. Then, they sounded the alarm, notifying both their national government and the international community.

Jan. 25, 2022 -- A new, highly contagious subvariant of Omicron has emerged, which some have begun calling “son of Omicron,” but public health officials say it's too soon to tell what kind of real threat, if any, this new strain will present. In the meantime, it's worth...

The year 2021 was supposed to be a turning point in the pandemic. As vaccine rates soared, companies across America geared up to head back into the office. Plans to re-open were put into motion and target dates were set. But then, the “hot vax summer” turned into the Delta delay as companies were forced to postpone their returns to in-person work.

The new year rode in on a wave of omicron cases, but will this be the last of the variants, or will a brand-new "variant of concern" emerge in 2022?. Experts told Live Science that they wouldn't be surprised if a troublesome new coronavirus variant crops up this year — but that it's difficult to predict how quickly that variant would spread, how well it would evade the human immune system or whether it would cause more severe disease than prior versions of the virus.

LONDON — New Covid-19 variants are likely to keep on emerging until the globe has been vaccinated against the virus, experts warn, saying that the sharing of vaccines is not just an altruistic act but a pragmatic one. "Until the whole world is vaccinated, not just rich Western countries,...

The World Health Organization warned that new coronavirus variants could emerge during the pandemic that render current vaccines useless. "It's possible that new variants could evade our countermeasures and become fully resistant to current vaccines or past infection, necessitating vaccine adaptations," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Reactionary political movements...

How quickly can we modify COVID-19 vaccines to tackle any new variants that arise? Jennifer Pancorbo has some answers. The ongoing battles with COVID variants Delta and Omicron highlight just how quickly viruses can mutate, and what that can mean for public health. Here, she explains modifying the COVID-19 vaccine...

Omicron Variant “Almost Certainly” Less Severe Than Delta: Fauci. —The Post, December 7, 2021. As of 0900 hours today, the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is considered more transmissible than the preëminent Delta by a factor of 3.4, while also being “less severe” by a factor of 2.8 (this measurement being on a scale of 1 to 12.7, with the median being 5.3 and the number 7 entirely left out). These two facts will have certainly changed by the time this sentence has been written, and changed five more times by the time it’s been spell-checked. But, rest assured, Omicron is a certified doozy (on the Farce-Doozy scale), and worthy of the attention it has received. What about the lesser covids?