- Omicron BA.5 more virulent and replicates faster, new study in mice finds Times of India
- Omicron Sub-Variant ‘BA.5’ Shows Higher Virulence in Early Infection: Study | Weather.com The Weather Channel
- Engineered mice reveal how Omicron subvariant BA.5 is more virulent News-Medical.Net
- Protective effect of previous infection and vaccination against reinfection with BA.5 Omicron subvariant: a nationwide population-based study in Japan The Lancet
- Omicron subvariant BA.5 more virulent, study in mice finds Times of India
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: BA5
Efficacy of mRNA-1273 and Novavax ancestral or BA.1 spike booster vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 BA.5 infection in non-human primates – Science
- Efficacy of mRNA-1273 and Novavax ancestral or BA.1 spike booster vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 BA.5 infection in non-human primates Science
- PastoCovac and PastoCovac Plus as protein subunit COVID-19 vaccines led to great humoral immune responses in BBIP-CorV immunized individuals | Scientific Reports Nature.com
- Safety and immunogenicity of heterologous boosting with orally aerosolised or intramuscular Ad5-nCoV vaccine and homologous boosting with inactivated vaccines (BBIBP-CorV or CoronaVac) in children and adolescents: a randomised, open-label, parallel- The Lancet
- Study indicates that the Omicron wave and the rollout of vaccines led to almost 100% seropositivity and boosted anti-spike IgG titers in children and adolescents News-Medical.Net
- Protection against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/5 variant following booster vaccination or breakthrough infection in the UK Nature.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Omicron BA.5 is declining as emerging variants gain ground: CDC data
The U.S. faces at least seven different versions of Covid-19 omicron as the nation heads into winter when health officials are expecting another wave of viral infections.
Although the omicron BA.5 variant remains dominant in the country, it is starting to lose some ground to other versions of the virus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published on Friday.
Omicron BA.5 has splintered into several new but related variants that include BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and BF.7. The U.K. Health Security Agency, in a report earlier this month, said these three variants are demonstrating a growth advantage over BA.5, which was the most contagious version to date.
In the U.S., omicron BA.5 makes up about 68% of all new infections, down from about 80% at the beginning of October. BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and BF.7 are now causing about 17% of new infections combined, according to the CDC data.
About 3% of new infections are attributable to BA.2.75. and BA.2.75.2, which are related to the omicron BA.2 variant that caused a bump in cases during the spring but was pushed out.
Scientists at Peking University in China found that omicron BA.2.75.2 and BQ.1.1 were the most adept at evading immunity from prior BA.5 infection and several antibody drugs. The study, published earlier in October, has not been peer reviewed.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid response coordinator, said earlier this week that U.S. health officials are closely monitoring these variants because they are good at evading prior immunity.
“The reason we’re tracking them is because they either have a lot more immune invasiveness or they render many of our treatments ineffective,” Jha said. “Those are the two major things that get our attention.”
But Jha said the new omicron boosters that the U.S. started rolling out last month should provide better protection than the first-generation vaccines against these emerging variants. The boosters target BA.5 and the emerging variants are all omicron and most descend from BA.5.
Jha called on all eligible Americans to get the new boosters by Halloween so they will have full protection for Thanksgiving when family holiday gatherings kick into full swing.
But the scientists at Peking University said the immune evasiveness of variants like BA.2.75.2 and BQ.1.1 could mean that the BA.5 booster shots will not provide sufficiently broad protection.
It’s unclear how much more effective the boosters will prove in the real world. The Food and Drug Administration authorized the shots without direct human data, relying instead on clinical trials from a similar shot that was developed against the original version of omicron, BA.1.
Pfizer and BioNTech on Thursday published the first human data from their BA.5 shots. They triggered a significant boost to the immune system against omicron BA.5 in a lab study that looked at blood samples from adults ages 18 and older, the companies said.
Risk of BA.5 Infection among Persons Exposed to Previous SARS-CoV-2 Variants
To the Editor:
In recent months, omicron (B.1.1.529) became the dominant variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), displaying some degree of immune evasion.1 The initial omicron subvariants, BA.1 and BA.2, are being progressively displaced by BA.5 in many countries, possibly owing to greater transmissibility and partial evasion of BA.1- and BA.2-induced immunity.2,3 The protection afforded by BA.1 against infection by the BA.5 subvariant is critical because adapted vaccines under clinical trials are based on BA.1.
Portugal was one of the first countries affected by a BA.5 predominance. We used the national coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) registry (SINAVE) to calculate the risk of BA.5 infection among persons with documented infection with past variants, including BA.1 and BA.2. The registry includes all reported cases in the country, regardless of clinical presentation.
Protective Effect of Previous SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Infection with the Omicron BA.5 Subvariant.
As shown in Panel A, we identified the periods (in different colors) when one variant was represented in more than 90% of sample isolates (data from the national severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2] genetic diversity surveillance4). The periods in gray represent times when more than one variant was in circulation. Given the relatively slow transition between dominance by the omicron BA.1 subvariant and dominance by the omicron BA.2 subvariant, we pooled BA.1 and BA.2 in the analysis. We did not include anyone infected in the 90 days before dominance by the omicron BA.5 subvariant. Panel B shows protection efficacy against infection during the period of BA.5 dominance (from June 1, 2022) among persons with one infection in the periods of dominance of different variants, as represented in Panel A, as compared with persons without any documented infection until June 1. Persons with two infections before June 1 were not included in the study. 𝙸 bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
The national SARS-CoV-2 genetic surveillance identified periods when different variants represented more than 90% of the isolates.4 We identified all persons who had a first infection in periods of dominance of each variant, to calculate their infection risk during the period of BA.5 dominance (Figure 1A). We pooled BA.1 and BA.2 because of the slow transition between the two subvariants in the population. Finally, we calculated the risk of BA.5 infection for the population that did not have any documented infection before BA.5 dominance (June 1, 2022).
We found that previous SARS-CoV-2 infection had a protective effect against BA.5 infection (Figure 1B and Table S1 in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org), and this protection was maximal for previous infection with BA.1 or BA.2. These data should be considered in the context of breakthrough infections in a highly vaccinated population, given that in Portugal more than 98% of the study population completed the primary vaccination series before 2022.
The study design cannot eliminate all confounders (see the Discussion section in the Supplementary Appendix). In addition, one limitation is the putative effect of immune waning in a population with hybrid immunity (previous infection and vaccination). We found that BA.1 or BA.2 infection in vaccinated persons provided higher protection against BA.5 than infection with pre-omicron variants, in line with a recent report with a test-negative design.5 However, BA.1 or BA.2 infections occurred closer to the period of BA.5 dominance than infections with previous variants. There is a perception that the protection afforded by previous BA.1 or BA.2 infection is very low, given the high number of BA.5 infections among persons with previous BA.1 or BA.2 infection. Our data indicate that this perception is probably a consequence of the larger pool of persons with BA.1 or BA.2 infection than with infection by other subvariants, and it is not supported by the data.
Overall, we found that breakthrough infections with the BA.5 subvariant were less likely among persons with a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection history in a highly vaccinated population, especially for previous BA.1 or BA.2 infection, than among uninfected persons.
João Malato, M.Sc.
Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Lisbon, Portugal
Ruy M. Ribeiro, D.Phil.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
Pedro P. Leite, M.D.
Pedro Casaca, M.D.
Eugénia Fernandes, Ph.D.
Direção Geral da Saúde, Lisbon, Portugal
Carlos Antunes, Ph.D.
Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Válter R. Fonseca, M.D., Ph.D.
Direção Geral da Saúde, Lisbon, Portugal
Manuel C. Gomes, Ph.D.
Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Luis Graca, M.D., D.Phil.
Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, Lisbon, Portugal
[email protected]
Supported by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERA project number, 952377–iSTARS) and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through 081_596653860 and PTDC/MAT-APL/31602/2017 and through National Institutes of Health grant R01-AI116868.
Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org.
This letter was published on August 31, 2022, at NEJM.org.
Drs. Gomes and Graca contributed equally to this letter.
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1. Qu P, Faraone J, Evans JP, et al. Neutralization of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron BA.4/5 and BA.2.12.1 subvariants. N Engl J Med 2022;386:2526–2528.
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2. Yu J, Collier AY, Rowe M, et al. Neutralization of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants. N Engl J Med 2022;386:1579–1580.
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3. Cao Y, Yisimayi A, Jian F, et al. BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 escape antibodies elicited by omicron infection. Nature 2022;608:593–602.
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4. Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge. Genetic diversity of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in Portugal. (In Portuguese) 2022 (https://insaflu.insa.pt/covid19).
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5. Altarawneh HN, Chemaitelly H, Ayoub HH, et al. Protection of SARS-CoV-2 natural infection against reinfection with the omicron BA.4 or BA.5 subvariants. July 12, 2022 (https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.11.22277448v1). preprint.
Omicron Ba.5 variant: Warning over symptom of new strain that affects sufferers at night
An immunologist has warned the new strain of Covid-19 could be causing different symptoms – including one that emerges during the night.
Omicron BA.5 is a highly-contagious subvariant prompting concern as it contributes to a fresh wave of infections across the globe, including the UK.
Scientists have been finding differences with previous strains, including the ability to reinfect people within weeks of having Covid.
A leading immunologist has now suggested it could be causing a new symptom among patients.
“One extra symptom from BA.5 I saw this morning is night sweats,” Professor Luke O’Neill from Trinity College Dublin told an Irish radio station in mid-July.
“Isn’t that strange?” he added.
BA.5 is driving a surge in cases in a number of countries along with BA.4, including across Europe and in Australia. It has also become the dominant variant in the US.
“The disease is slightly different because the virus has changed,” Professor O’Neill told Newstalk.
He added: “There is some immunity to it – obviously with the T-cells and so on – and that mix of your immune system and the virus being slightly different might give rise to a slightly different diease, strangely enough night sweats being a feature.
“But very importantly, if you are vaccinated and you’re boosted, it doesn’t progress into severe disease is the message to keep reminding people.”
BA.5 was first discovered in South Africa in February, one month after BA.4 was identified in the same country.
Both have since spread around the world and sparked concern over a resurgence in Covid infections.
It comes as coronavirus cases in the UK have risen by 7 per cent to 3.8 million in the week to 14 July, up from 3.3 million a week earlier, according to Office for National Statistics data.
The increase continues to be driven by the aforementioned sub-variants, the institution said.
The latest figures represent the highest estimate since late April, but is still below the record high of 4.9 million that was reached at the end of March.
Omicron BA.5 Surge: 5 Ways to Stay Safe
The United States is in the midst of another coronavirus surge, this time thanks to the Omicron subvariant BA.5. Scientists warn that the new subvariant appears to be the virus’s most transmissible version to date, and it is reinfecting people who have already dealt with previous variants once or twice, sometimes as recently as a few weeks ago.
The small percentage of people who avoided Covid-19 for two and a half years are also finding out BA.5 has ways of slipping past their defenses. Even President Biden, who had managed to avoid an infection, tested positive on Thursday. Like many Americans, the president and his aides had let their guard down, loosening stringent Covid precautions previously employed at the White House.
Everyone just wants to get back to normal, though polls show that few Americans are sure what living with Covid should really look like. Most cities are unlikely to bring back mask mandates or other protective measures used earlier in the pandemic, or even in the original Omicron surge.
“We’ve had a shift in our baseline,” said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Hospitalizations have roughly doubled since May and more than 400 Americans are dying every day, but these numbers are significantly lower than the peak of the winter Omicron wave.
“Earlier in the pandemic, we would never have accepted these numbers,” Dr. Osterholm said.
There’s also the potential for developing symptoms of long Covid, which researchers are trying to fully understand. Still, experts are weighing in on those concerns.
“We can live our lives knowing very well that this risk exists,” said Dien Ho, a bioethicist at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
The question is, Which public health measures does the nation need to prioritize. And what can you do individually to lower your risk of exposure, slow the relentless cycle of new variants and minimize the disruption to daily life? Here are five steps to take, if you haven’t already.
1. Max out your vaccines and boosters.
If you have not received your booster — or any shots at all — experts say that the current surge is a good reason to schedule an appointment now. Vaccines provide excellent protection against serious illness and booster shots can amplify those benefits. But fewer than half of Americans have received boosters, and less than a third of adults who are eligible for their second booster (or fourth shot) — those who are immunocompromised or above 50 — have received it..
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s use of the term “fully vaccinated” to describe the first two doses of vaccines early in the pandemic has not helped. Although the agency has since switched to saying that people should be “up to date” with all their shots, the early use of “fully vaccinated” has unfortunately stuck.
“A lot of people have said, ‘I’ve had my two shots and I’m done’,” Dr. Osterholm said.
Some people may also be discouraged by new research that shows immunity against infection dips significantly within three months, and the newest Omicron subvariants are much more adept at dodging immunity than earlier versions of the virus, Dr. Osterholm added.
New vaccines more targeted toward Omicron subvariants will likely arrive in the fall, and the Biden administration is considering expanding booster eligibility. But if you are in a high-risk group that is eligible for second boosters, you should not try to game out the timing of your shots. According to the C.D.C., getting vaccinated now “will not prevent you from getting an authorized variant-specific vaccine in the fall or winter when they are recommended for you.”
2. Find your new community Covid-19 indicators.
You should keep an eye on Covid-19 statistics to figure out your own risk and decide when to add more levels of protection. For a majority of the pandemic, the C.D.C.’s color-coded map of community-level risk was a good indicator of cases and transmission rates. But the agency recently changed the way it calculates these risk levels to put more emphasis on local hospitalization rates.
Case numbers no longer closely track with hospitalizations because of the mix of natural or vaccine immunity, home testing and treatments that are available, blurring real-time tracking of the virus. Instead, experts recommend using other ways to stay informed of your community’s Covid-19 risks: Check local news and tap into your social networks.
Talk to your family and friends as well as other members of your community to find out whether they’ve had Covid recently or know anybody who has or recently had Covid, Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said. Because you’re more likely to interact with people in your network, you may get a better sense of incidence in your community and what your own risk of getting sick may be.
When more of your close contacts are getting Covid or being reinfected more frequently, like many people across the country are right now, it’s a good indicator that you and your peers should start putting on masks and adding more Covid protections.
Some people may feel hesitant to share that they have the virus, Dr. Sethi added, either because they feel like an outlier, are embarrassed that they caught it or know the stigma attached to having relatives with differing pandemic ideologies. But “that’s kind of the opposite of what we need to be doing,” he said.
3. Mask up, and not just indoors.
Wear good quality masks in public places where you need to protect yourself, whether you have been infected with Covid-19 or not. Each infection may still bring the risk of developing debilitating long Covid symptoms, said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“For me, the thought process hasn’t changed too much,” Dr. Rivers said. “I continue to wear a mask whenever I’m indoors and try to move as many activities as I can outdoors.”
Other experts agree that if you want to go maskless, outdoor air will be considerably safer than indoor spaces. But even outdoors, the closer people are together, the higher the risk of catching the virus.
“As infectious as BA.5 is, we have to acknowledge that it’s important that you’re not in crowded conditions with limited air,” Dr. Osterholm said.
If you are hosting a summer barbecue, for instance, you may want to invite fewer guests to reduce the risk of virus transmission. You can also check that everyone is vaccinated and has recently tested negative. At bigger gatherings, such as outdoor concerts or weddings where you have less control, you should mask up and monitor yourself for new symptoms for a few days afterward, Dr. Osterholm said.
4. Keep rapid tests on hand — and use them.
Rapid tests are an effective tool to combat the spread of Covid-19 if you regularly use them. If you are only testing after you’ve had a potential exposure, then you’re doing it wrong, Dr. Sethi said. Instead, bookend social events by testing before and three to five days after large gatherings to best protect yourself and those you meet with, he said.
Keep a stash of rapid tests at home, especially if you don’t have access to a public testing site or tests through your workplace, said Alyssa Bilinski, a health policy expert at Brown University. Each household can order three rounds of free tests — or 16 tests in total — from the government. People with insurance can also be reimbursed for eight free tests a month.
Just remember that you can test negative even if you have symptoms of Covid-19, Dr. Sethi said. Quarantine if you think you may be sick. Test again a day or two after your negative result to be sure. And if you have Covid-19, test after your symptoms have eased or even disappeared. . A positive antigen test is a fairly reliable indication that you are still contagious, even if your symptoms have eased or disappeared.
When people don’t use them often enough, rapid tests end up being less useful from a public health standpoint, Dr. Sethi said.
5. If you’re traveling, find out how to get treatment.
Before you leave, prepare for the possibility of getting infected during a trip.
“It’s a good idea to travel with a printed list of all of your current medications, your medical and vaccination history and your provider’s contact information in case you need to seek medical care while traveling,” said Dr. Annie Luetkemeyer, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, San Francisco.
Keep plenty of room on your credit card and read your health or travel insurance policies carefully to see which expenses they will cover if you have to extend your trip because of Covid-19. And do a little research into clinics and pharmacies at your destination.
Although you cannot get Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment for Covid-19, preemptively without a diagnosis, you can use the Test to Treat locator to find places where testing and immediate treatment are available in the United States. Pharmacists can also prescribe Paxlovid directly to patients who test positive but are not able to see a medical provider, said Kuldip Patel, the senior associate chief pharmacy officer at Duke University Hospital in North Carolina.
Outside the United States, however, availability of treatment will depend on where you are. Both Paxlovid and another antiviral called molnupiravir are on the World Health Organization’s list of recommended drugs for treating Covid-19 and are approved for use in several countries.
But you can also avoid the uncertainty of finding medication abroad. If you are at high risk for Covid-19 complications or may be immunocompromised and at risk for lower vaccine efficacy, you can talk to your doctor about getting the monoclonal antibody treatment Evusheld before you travel, Dr. Luetkemeyer said. You may also want to carry over-the-counter drugs — like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, cough suppressants and throat lozenges — to help ease symptoms if you get sick.
You can choose which steps will mitigate the most harm right now, and those calculations may be different for different people. The country is “struggling to recast what the risk of Covid looks like,” Dr. Bilinski said. But that doesn’t mean we should give up entirely on measures that will keep us safe, she added. The BA.5 surge can be a reminder that there is a middle ground between having Covid precautions dominate your life and pretending that the pandemic is over.
BA.5 is causing more Covid-19 reinfections, data suggests, but they don’t appear to be more frequent
But on average, these reinfections do not seem to be happening more rapidly, according to a new analysis from the gene sequencing company Helix.
BA.5, another offshoot of the Omicron variant, is now causing about 80% of new Covid-19 infections in the United States, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Helix, which sequences Covid-19 tests to monitor variants, recently plumbed its data to find out how many times the same person tested positive for Covid-19 and whether there are more reinfections now compared to earlier waves.
Out of nearly 300,000 infections since March 2021, the share that are reinfections almost doubled from 3.6% during the BA.2 wave in May to 6.4% during the BA.5 wave in July.
These reinfections don’t seem to be getting closer together, however.
In April, during the BA.2 wave, the average time between positive Covid-19 tests for the same person was about 230 days; by July, it was about 270 days, or about nine months.
“The most recent data we had pulled showed that the fraction of all infections that are reinfections have increased quite a bit. There was a jump,” said Shishi Luo, associate director of bioinformatics and infectious disease at Helix.
Luo says she thinks a mix of factors — including waning immunity, broad spread and mutations to BA.5 that help it sneak past the body’s defenses — are probably all contributing to the increase.
On average, people who are getting reinfected now were last infected about nine months ago. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some recent cases in which people have gotten new bouts of Covid-19 just weeks apart. Luo can see those in the data. But they aren’t the norm.
“Statistically speaking, you’re more likely to get reinfected the longer it has been since your last infection, just based on the data we’ve generated,” she said.
The Helix data echoes the results of a recent study on reinfection from Qatar, which routinely screens its 2.8 million residents for Covid-19, testing about 5% of the population each week.
The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants arrived in Qatar in May and were dominating transmission by June.
Researchers used the national screening data to look at instances of reinfection.
They found that people who’d had Covid-19 infections before the arrival of the Omicron variant had little protection against a reinfection that caused symptoms during the BA.5 wave: just 15%. But protection from a past infection by an Omicron variant was higher: about 76%.
“Those who got infected with a pre-Omicron variant now have really limited protection against the infection of BA.4 or BA.5, so they cannot really count on natural immunity to protect them,” said Laith Abu-Raddad, an epidemiologist with Weill-Cornell Medicine-Qatar, in Doha, Qatar.
“Those who get infected more recently with an Omicron variant, they have pretty good strong immunity — but of course not total immunity — against reinfection,” Abu-Raddad said.
These study results may not apply to everyone. The population of Qatar is unique because it is mostly made up of men who travel into the country for work, the researchers say, and few people there are over the age of 50.
But Luo says people shouldn’t panic when they hear about friends or family members getting Covid-19 for the second time in a month. “That’s not the typical experience.”
BA.5 Symptoms, At-Home Testing and Everything Else We Know About the New COVID Variant
For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites.
What’s happening
The omicron variant of COVID-19 keeps changing, creating newer, more contagious variants. BA.5 seems to be the most contagious version to date and is causing most current COVID-19 cases in the US
Why it matters
BA.5 is causing more reinfection in people who already had COVID-19, including earlier versions of omicron. It’s also evading immunity from the vaccines.
What it means for you
BA.5 doesn’t appear to be causing more severe disease than earlier variants, and the vaccines are still effective at preventing severe disease and death. To stay protected, get the booster shots you’re eligible for and wear a mask in public.
BA.5, the newest version of COVID-19’s omicron variant, constitutes about 78% of current COVID-19 cases, according to an estimate by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because of BA.5’s makeup, people who already had COVID-19 are most likely not as protected as they would’ve been if facing an earlier strain, federal health officials said last week at a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing.
This could explain another rise in COVID-19 cases, and more importantly a rise in hospitalizations. While the current seven-day average of new hospitalizations is rising slightly week over week, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said, the rate has doubled compared with early May.
At the meeting, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, explained how the virus that causes COVID-19 keeps mutating, and the virus “essentially bumped one variant off the table after the other,” which has led to a long parade of increasingly contagious subvariants of omicron. The mutation that’s now responsible for the majority of COVID-19 cases is BA.5, an extremely contagious version of omicron.
Though the newest subvariant “substantially” evades antibodies from prior infections and vaccines, Fauci said, being up-to-date with a booster (or two boosters, if you’re 50 or older) is still protective against severe disease and death. That’s because research shows that BA.5 doesn’t lessen the protection against severe disease compared with earlier versions of omicron. And while not much is known about its clinical severity compared with earlier subvariants of omicron, it doesn’t appear to be causing more severe disease, Response Team officials said.
In an effort to target the most relevant strain of virus causing COVID-19, vaccines based on the BA.5 subvariant (along with BA.4) will be the first choice for COVID-19 booster shots this fall. Response Team Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha encouraged everyone to get a booster if they’re eligible and haven’t opted for one yet, because it won’t affect their ability to get vaccinated come fall or winter when new boosters start rolling out to Americans. What’s more, COVID-19 treatments, including Paxlovid, are predicted to be effective still, and the US Test to Treat clinics are still up and running to connect people most at risk with prescriptions for treatments if they need them.
Here’s what we know about BA.5.
Do the at-home tests detect BA.5?
Right now there’s no reason to suggest that the at-home rapid COVID-19 tests (a few boxes of which are free when you order through the government’s website) are less effective against BA.5 compared with earlier versions of omicron. Generally speaking, the FDA says early data suggests the antigen tests detect omicron but may have reduced sensitivity.
Typically, rapid home tests work by detecting the part of the COVID-19 virus protein that doesn’t change much between variants, called the nucleocapsid, Slate reports. “Because of that, the tests are able to detect the different variants,” Nate Hafer, an assistant professor of molecular medicine at UMass Chan Medical School, told the publication.
If you have symptoms of COVID-19 but test negative with an at-home COVID-19 test, consider having a PCR test done, which is a highly sensitive and accurate lab-based COVID-19 test.
How severe is BA.5? Do COVID-19 treatments still work?
BA.5 is a subvariant of omicron, which means it’s different from the “original” omicron, but not different enough to constitute its own variant status. (Delta is a different variant from omicron and beta, for example.) BA.5 is understood to be the most contagious version of the virus yet, however, and it’s evading immunity. This means more people will get reinfected with COVID-19, which can put them at risk of complications and long COVID symptoms, even if the infection itself was mild.
Walensky said Tuesday that we don’t definitively know yet about the clinical severity of BA.5 compared to earlier subvariants of omicron. But that said, BA.5 doesn’t appear to be associated with more severe disease compared to recent strains of the virus, Fauci said.
In an analysis of a preliminary (not yet peer-reviewed) report from the Kirby Institute in Australia, Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scrips Research, wrote that BA.5’s ability to infect cells might be more similar to the delta variant than other versions of omicron. He also writes that changes in BA.5 might explain reports of people taking longer to test negative compared to illnesses with earlier omicron subvariants.
As with other versions of omicron that whittled down our immunity, the vaccines and boosters available are still expected to provide protection against severe disease and death. Boosters — including a second booster — have been particularly important for protecting older adults and other people more vulnerable to severe disease in the age of omicron, and have substantially cut the risk of death from COVID-19.
Paxlovid, an effective antiviral medication, is still expected to be effective at treating COVID-19 in people at higher risk of severe disease, Fauci said Tuesday. The monoclonal antibody therapy available, bebtelovimab from Eli Lilly, is also predicted to be effective against BA.5, as is Evusheld.
If you test positive for COVID-19 and are at higher risk of severe disease (you’re an older adult or you have a health condition), reach out to your doctor or find a Test to Treat clinic near you.
What are the symptoms?
Right now, there aren’t any reports that show BA.5 is giving people different symptoms compared to earlier versions of omicron.
For many people who become sick with COVID-19 these days (particularly those who are fully vaccinated and boosted), symptoms resemble cold symptoms such as sore throat, runny nose and fatigue. Back pain is a peculiar new symptom of COVID-19 that some people with omicron have reported, and the once very common loss of taste or smell appears to be much less common with omicron variants than with older strains.
If you have symptoms and are wondering whether it’s COVID-19, taking a test and staying home while you’re sick will help protect people more vulnerable to severe COVID-19 disease.
Read more: Is It Allergies or COVID? How to Tell the Difference
Sarah Tew/CNET
Understanding omicron, variants and subvariants
Variants are made up of multiple lineages and sublineages. Each variant has a “parent” lineage, according to the CDC, followed by other lineages, which you can think of like a family tree. As the virus spreads between people, mutations occur, but not all of them change the characteristics of the virus in meaningful ways.
The omicron variant and its sublineages made the virus much more contagious and capable of infecting more people, but it’s led to less severe disease, on average, than the delta variant.
One of the most important things we can do to stop the virus from mutating is keeping community levels of COVID-19 low so the virus has less chance to mutate, Fauci said.
Genomic surveillance can detect variants and sublineages. Scientists in South Africa were able to quickly identify omicron as a new variant because of the way it presents through PCR tests. The original omicron causes a dropped signal or marker on the test that sets it apart from delta, which was the dominant variant prior to omicron. BA.2, however, didn’t have the same signal, called an S gene target failure. This made it more “stealthy” and gave it its name. Genomic sequencing will detect all omicron subvariants and coronavirus variants in general.
However, detecting new variants or subvariants may be becoming more difficult as the number of sequences shared across the world have “dropped precipitously,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease specialist with the World Health Organization, said in June. While the impact was still enormous, having real-world data available quickly after scientists detected omicron was a benefit during the worldwide surge last winter.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
Can The BA.4 And BA.5 COVID Variants Spread Outdoors?
We are in the midst of another COVID-19 wave driven by the highly contagious BA.4 and BA.5 variants, which have a mutation in the spike protein of the coronavirus that causes these variants to more easily attach to (and infect) people.
“Even small quantities of the virus floating around could infect you if you are not wearing a mask,” said Dr. Janak Patel, director of the Division of Infectious Disease and Immunology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, adding that this could be the case for certain outdoor settings, too — a situation that was generally considered OK for the past two-plus years of the pandemic.
So, does this mean you’re at risk every time you step outside? Are we back to square one with the pandemic? No, thankfully. But there is increased risk as we continue to deal with a more transmissible virus strain. Here’s what experts know and don’t know about COVID spread outdoors:
It’s not clear how much the new COVID variant spreads outdoors.
At this point, we are very familiar with uncertainty when it comes to COVID. And while it is known that BA.4 and BA.5 are more transmissible than other variants, it is not yet clear if they are spreading outdoors any more than other variants.
“We’re hearing anecdotal reports of people testing positive who think they got it outdoors,” said Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director of Infection Prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital. “Right now we’re waiting on additional data to confirm that COVID transmission is occurring outdoors.”
Roberts added that since BA.5 is more transmissible than prior variants indoors, it is likely that it’s more transmissible outdoors, too.
But being outside is still much, much safer than being indoors.
Roberts stressed that COVID spread outdoors is much less common than spread indoors, but nothing is perfect. Overall, spending time outside is “a safer mechanism of prevention against COVID” because of the unlimited ventilation.
“There’s free communication of the air with the atmosphere, and that really disperses aerosols [that can carry COVID-19], so the risk would be a lot lower,” Roberts explained.
That being said, not all outdoor spaces are created equal.
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Certain outdoor situations are riskier than others.
At this point, the definition of outdoors isn’t exactly agreed upon, Roberts noted. For some people, a tented wedding is outdoors. For others, a restaurant with an open wall is outdoors. For the most cautious, a park or a hiking trail is the only truly outdoor space.
Depending on the outdoor situation you’re in, it “changes the ventilation dynamics of that area and can alter the risk of COVID for people in that [space],” Roberts said, adding that he’d feel pretty comfortable in a socially distant, outdoor setting with nothing covering the space (like tents, tarps, overhangs, and enclosures) even with the BA.5 variant.
“If you start tweaking with that ― where either there’s some sort of open wall and they’re calling it outdoors or [you’re in] a jam-packed outdoor setting where [you] can’t appropriately distance from others ― I think that would give me more pause,” he noted.
Opt for small outdoor gatherings right now if you can.
“In any community where transmission is very intense, I would say it’s best to be in small groups,” Patel said.
What exactly does a small group mean? Patel said that “it all depends on the context, the space and the type of activity.” There isn’t a tried-and-true rule. In other words, 10 people crowded at an al fresco table doesn’t equal safety just because there are only a handful of people around.
To Patel, for small group settings to be safe, people can’t be shouting (COVID spreads more when people are singing or yelling), you must be able to maintain some distance from others, and everyone should be following public health measures like hand-washing.
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If you’re going to be in a crowded outdoor space, follow health precautions.
Patel stressed that if you’re going to crowded outdoor events like weddings, sports games and entertainment events, you should follow health precautions while we wait on data about the current subvariants’ spread outdoors.
“The key is really just ensuring that there’s adequate distancing,” particularly if you’re in a situation where someone sneezes or coughs within a few feet of you, Roberts emphasized. While it’s less dangerous than being indoors when someone sneezes, there’s still a risk of infection from a very contagious strain like BA.5.
“Ensuring you are able to distance even in an outdoor setting can only help reduce the risk of spread,” Roberts stated.
You should wear a mask if it’s impossible to create distance (ideally a well-fitted one, like a KN95) and take a COVID test before you go out, Patel said. And, if you don’t feel well, stay home.
Experts are still learning about COVID-19. The information in this story is what was known or available as of publication, but guidance can change as scientists discover more about the virus. Please check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the most updated recommendations.
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BA.5 skyrockets in US, now accounting for 78% of cases
The omicron coronavirus subvariant BA.5 is hurtling toward complete domination in the US, now accounting for an estimated 78 percent of the country’s cases—which are also on the rise.
The breakneck takeover is stunning, with BA.5 showing a significant growth advantage over all other lineages and sublineages. In the US, that seems to include BA.4, which shares the same spike protein mutations but has differing mutations elsewhere in its genome.
At the start of June, BA.5 accounted for less than 10 percent of cases, with BA.4 lagging slightly, accounting for an estimated 6.4 percent. Since then, BA.5 has blasted ahead to 78 percent, while BA.4 peaked at 14.4 percent early in July and has now declined to 12.8 percent.
Globally, BA.4 and BA.5 are now collectively dominant, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Based on genetic data compiled in an international repository, BA.4/5 account for 69 percent of all SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences globally.
Worldwide, cases are up 27 percent in the last two weeks, and deaths have risen 34 percent, according to data tracking by The New York Times. Similarly, in the US, cases are up 20 percent, hospitalizations are up 20 percent, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions are up 19 percent, and deaths have also ticked up by 9 percent.
“Still in this”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SARS-CoV-2 transmission levels are high or substantial in more than 97 percent of US counties. Based on the agency’s “COVID-19 Community Levels” metric, which accounts for hospital bed availability and admissions as well as case rates, about 75 percent of US counties are at high or medium levels. Specifically, a little over 35 percent of counties are designated at high levels, at which point the CDC recommends masking in indoor public settings.
But case counts—in the US and elsewhere—are likely a significant undercount, given that many government testing efforts have pulled back, and many people now are testing at home and not reporting their results.
In a variant update video published Tuesday, Maria Van Kerkhove, the COVID-19 technical lead for the World Health Organization, emphasized that data is becoming increasingly limited, despite the threat of SARS-CoV-2 remaining high.
“More than 5.7 million cases were reported to WHO last week and those are the cases that we know about,” Van Kerkhove said. “And that is an underestimate, because surveillance activities have declined drastically around the world, including testing.”
With high transmission, the virus can still spread to the many unvaccinated worldwide and evolve into new variants.
“You have to remember that there are hundreds of millions, if not billions of people, who have not received a full course of vaccine yet, two-and-half years into this pandemic, and they are at increased risk of severe disease and dying,” Van Kerkhove said.
People should be doing everything they can to reduce spread, she added. That means “masks, distancing, ventilation, get vaccinated, spend more time outdoors than indoors. Work from home when you’re unwell. It’s not just about you… we’re very much still in this pandemic.”