There are already dozens of cases across almost half of the U.S. of a new Covid subvariant that’s even more contagious than the already highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The Omicron subvariant, known as BA.2, is 1.5 times more transmissible than the original omicron strain, according to Danish scientists.
The U.K. Health Security Agency on Friday said BA.2 has a “substantial” growth advantage over the original omicron, known as BA.1.
Nearly half of U.S. states have confirmed the presence of BA.2 with at least 127 known cases nationwide as of Friday, according to a global database that tracks Covid variants.
