Los Angeles [US], July 21: The BA.5 Omicron subvariant, now the dominant coronavirus strain in the United States, made up nearly 80 percent of new COVID-19 infections in the United States, according to latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The BA.5 subvariant accounted for 77.9 percent of new infections in the latest week ending July 16, up from 68.7 percent a week before.
Another new subvariant, BA.4, accounted for 12.8 percent of new infections, CDC data show.
The two contagious subvariants now made up over 90 pct of new infections in the United States.
Confirmed cases contracted by the two subvariants kept increasing since mid-May, CDC data show.
The two subvariants are more contagious than earlier variants of Omicron, and also appear to evade protection from vaccines and previous infections more easily than most of their predecessors, according to health experts.
Source: Xinhua