They’re able to evade immunity and trigger breakthroughs and reinfections, but aren’t causing hospitalizations to spike. Still, experts urge precautions.
If it seems like half the people you know have come down with COVID-19 recently, you’re not alone.
Each new branch that shoots off the family tree from the original omicron trunk gets a new series of letters and numbers. Two branches, known as BA.2 and BA.2.12.1, became dominant this spring, and now subvariants known as BA.4 and especially BA.5 are taking over, making up 70% of U.S. cases in the week ending July 2, and about 40-50% of recent cases in Southern California counties, officials said.
On the other hand, hospitalizations — while up significantly from their lows of a few months ago — haven’t risen back to the levels seen in previous surges. “If you’re vaccinated and double boosted, let’s say, that will go a long way to keeping you out of the ICU, but it WILL NOT, in upper case, prevent reinfection,” Noymer said. “
Experts said the standard from early in the pandemic — you’re at risk if you’re within 6 feet of someone for 15 minutes or more — isn’t really helpful anymore. If you’re outside where the air can circulate, you’re probably at low risk, but inside, the virus can travel a considerable distance and it doesn’t take 15 minutes to invade.
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