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LOCAL NEWS New COVID subvariant identified in Delaware as cases continue to surge philadelphia BY STEPHANIE STAHL SEPTEMBER 5, 2023 / 9:15 PM / CBS PHILADELPHIA PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new COVID subvariant has been identified Tuesday for the first time in our area, in Delaware. This comes as cases are increasing now and also striking again in the White House. The First Lady has COVID, and the President has tested negative twice but will be wearing a mask when he's inside around people as a precaution. Doctors say because of her age 72, Jill Biden is at risk for...

The recently detected BA.2.86 COVID-19 subvariant may be more capable of causing infections in people who previously contracted the virus or have been vaccinated, according to a risk assessment from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), though it remains unclear if this strain causes more severe illness than others. First detected last month, a handful of infections caused by BA.2.86 have been reported in the U.S., Denmark, South Africa, the U.K. and Israel. The CDC noted that genomic sequencing of COVID-19 has dropped “substantially” when compared to the past few years, so the spread and occurrence of new...

XBB.1.16, the subvariant behind a COVID-19 surge in India, has been reported in 22 countries and 18 U.S. states.The World Health Organization (WHO) is keeping tabs on the new omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, dubbed “Arcturus” by those tracking the virus. XBB.1.16 is currently fueling a surge of cases in India, where it’s the dominant subvariant, and has been identified in at least 22 countries, including the United States. XBB.1.16 is “one to watch,” according to Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, COVID-19 technical lead at WHO and a professor at the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security in Washington, DC....

Experts say the transmission rates of the BA.2.75 variant are showing an exponential increase, particularly in India, where it is competing with BA.5. As the U.S. battles the rapidly spreading BA.5 omicron subvariant, a new mutant that could compete with the highly contagious strain is on the horizon. Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to evade immunity from vaccines and prior infection. The latest mutant has been spotted in several distant states in India and appears to be spreading faster than other variants there. It’s unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than other...

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It has been almost three months since city leaders dropped COVID-19 restrictions – but as we head toward summer, experts warn we could see more COVID cases. As CBS 2's Sabrina Franza reported, Chicago is expected to become an area with high COVID-19 risk as soon as this week. Meanwhile, we are also now hearing new reports of another disease – monkeypox – with cases popping up around the world and right here in the U.S.

COVID-19 case numbers have remained stable in the US, even as the highly contagious BA.2 subvariant has spread to become the dominant form of the virus. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the new subvariant now accounts for around 72% of cases nationally, though figures show it has not driven a new surge like it has in European countries

Symptoms from the new omicron variant’s subvariant — named the BA.2 variant— might be mistaken for spring allergies, experts recently told CBS News. Why it matters: The coronavirus pandemic has hit a lull period in the United States. As spring emerges, the new coronavirus variant symptoms might be mistaken for simple spring allergies.

The highly transmissible subvariant of omicron known as BA.2, or “stealth omicron,” is the dominant strain circulating worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Virtually all new coronavirus cases reported to WHO are from omicron, which has several subvariants. The BA.2 subvariant was responsible for nearly 86% of the omicron cases sequenced over the past month, according to the organization. “Among the major omicron descendent lineages, weekly trends show that the relative proportion of BA.2 has increased steadily since the end of 2021, with BA.2 becoming the dominant lineage by week seven of 2022,” WHO wrote in a report released...

Chief White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he doesn’t believe the United States will see another surge of the CCP virus due to the spread of a subvariant of Omicron.The subvariant, known as BA.2, has been blamed by some officials for an uptick in cases across Europe and the United Kingdom in recent days.“Hopefully, we won’t see a surge. I don’t think we will. The easiest way to prevent that is to continue to get people vaccinated. And for those who have been vaccinated, to continue to get them boosted, so that’s really where we stand right...

The BA.2 virus-- a subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant-- isn't just spreading faster than its distant cousin, it may also cause more severe disease and appears capable of thwarting some of the key weapons we have against Covid-19, new research suggests. New lab experiments from Japan show that BA.2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants of Covid-19, including Delta. And like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster shot restores protection, making illness after infection about 74% less likely. BA.2 is also resistant to...

The monoclonal antibody treatment from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Vir BioTechnology protects well against the Omicron subvariant that is becoming more prevalent in the United States, the companies said Feb. 10.Preclinical data suggest that sotrovimab, the monoclonal, “retains neutralizing activity against the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron ,” the companies said in a press release.The data, based on pseudovirus and pharmacokinetic testing, was not made public. A Vir spokesperson didn’t respond when asked why. The companies said the results are being shared with government authorities around the world and that they plan on publishing them on the preprint server bioRxiv in the...

There’s yet another twist in the pandemic: The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, now has a “subvariant” that seems to spread even more quickly than any other version of the coronavirus to date. The good news for now is that vaccines still appear to protect against it. But because it’s so transmissible, scientists are racing to figure out what harm it could cause. The original omicron variant, which scientists call BA.1 or B.1.1.529, was until recently the most transmissible known version of the virus. In many countries, it caused some of the steepest and tallest peaks...

Feb. 1, 2022 -- While studies indicate the Omicron subvariant spreads more easily than the highly transmissible original Omicron variant, there’s no evidence the subvariant makes people any sicker, a World Health Organization official said, according to CNBC.Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead, said Tuesday at a news conference that both the Omicron variant, labeled BA.1 and the subvariant, BA.2, cause less severe illness than the Delta variant.But there’s no indication the subvariant causes more severe illness than the original Omicron, she said. Vaccines protect people from illness and death from both the variant and the subvariant, she said.“We need...

The emerging BA.2 Omicron subvariant does not appear to be more severe than the original BA.1 — but is more transmissible and more able to infect vaccinated people, according to reports. The subvariant, one of at least four descendants of Omicron, has been detected in 57 countries since emerging in southern Africa 10 weeks ago, the World Health Organization said.

Nearly 100 cases of the Omicron subvariant BA.2 have been identified in the United States, which is now present in nearly 50 countries around the world. As scientists continue to study whether it causes more or less severe illness than Omicron BA.1, officials in Denmark, where the subvariant is dominant, are weighing in. "There is no evidence that the BA.2 variant causes more disease, but it must be more contagious," Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said during a news conference on Wednesday. Preliminary calculations suggest BA.2 could be 1.5 times more infectious than BA.1, Denmark's top infectious disease authority, Statens...

Jan. 25, 2022 -- A new, highly contagious subvariant of Omicron has emerged, which some have begun calling “son of Omicron,” but public health officials say it's too soon to tell what kind of real threat, if any, this new strain will present.In the meantime, it's worth watching BA.2, the World Health Organization says. The subvariant has been identified across at least 40 countries, including three cases reported in Houston and several in Washington state.BA.2 accounts for only a small minority of reported cases so far, including 5% in India, 4% of those in the United Kingdom, and 2% each...

A subvariant of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, known as BA2, has arrived in Israel and 20 cases of it have already been detected in the country, Kan 11 News reported on Thursday. According to the report, BA2 is currently known to have even more mutations than the original Omicron, and as such, some scientists around the world have speculated that it may be more violent. However, at the moment this is only a hypothesis, and it is important to note that there is no absolute certainty and knowledge about this. The subspecies was first seen in China a few...