BA. 2 variant of COVID to become dominant in US; overall cases decline

BA.2 variant of COVID-19 has now become the dominant strain of coronavirus in the United States as of Wednesday, officials announced. The country has seen an overall decline in cases since the omicron peak in January.

In January, when the original omicron variant ravaged the United States, an average of 800,000 cases were being recorded daily. The number has now reportedly been axed down to 28,600 cases. The new variant currently represents more than 34% of cases in the US.

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Even though a decline in cases has been registered in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle Walensky warned that a new wave of infections may come.

According to reports from AFP, the BA.2 variant of omicron does seem to be more transmissible but does not cause more severe disease or evade the protection of various coronavirus vaccines.

Some urban communities of the United States have also registered an uptick in fresh cases of COVID-19, Walenksy implied. 

“We have seen a small increase in reported COVID-19 cases in New York state and New York City and some increases in people in hospital with COVID-19 in New England, specifically where the BA.2 variant has been reaching levels above 50%”, the director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, according to AFP.

The US Congress passed a spending bill earlier this week and refused to add $22.5 billion in COVID-19 funding as cases largely decline across the country.

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United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said, “At this stage, our resources are depleted.”

“The fund Congress established to reimburse doctors and other medical providers for COVID care for Americans, in particular the uninsured, is no longer accepting new claims for testing or treatment services as of yesterday”, the Health Secretary added, according to reports from AFP.