FILE - A healthcare worker administers a COVID-19 rapid test at an urgent care center in Denver, Colo. (Daniel Brenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)LOS ANGELES - The omicron variant of COVID-19 has two subvariants that have now dominated most of the cases in the United States, according to data released by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week. Subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are more transmissible, and early evidence shows both are capable of evading immune responses from previous infection as well as current COVID-19 vaccines.
While they are not as deadly, they spread more quickly. And with more people infected, the chances of new mutations and variants cropping up increase.
What’s more, more infections mean a higher chance of people developing long-term COVID-19. Health care experts are calling these new subvariants the worst they’ve seen of any of the COVID-19 variants thus far.