President Joe Biden recently said that the coronavirus pandemic is over, quickly adding: “We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it.”
This news came as another omicron subvariant — the BF.7 — emerged, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.
For months, scientists were keeping an eye on BA.2.75, dubbed Centaurus, until the BA.5 mutation evolved and took over, making up 2.3% of reported cases in the U.S., Fortune reported.
“This variant is obviously outcompeting our current major variants, but it is too soon to say whether it will have a significant impact on the United States,” Dr. Kevin Kavanagh told Fierce Healthcare. “Currently, regions of our country have different rates of vaccination and a different history of exposure to past variants. Thus, the impact seen in one region does not translate to another, and it is anyone’s guess if BF.7 rapid growth will continue.”
Can new COVID-19 variants evade current vaccines?
Future variants still pose a threat as mutations may make them more transmissible, rendering the vaccines, older and updated, “less effective,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead for COVID-19, said, per Fortune.
“We’re still at risk for future variants, and we don’t know what the character” of those subvariants will be.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also warned Thursday that the risk of more dangerous variants emerging is ever present, per CNBC News. Even now, the virus is spreading and evolving.
He added that though the fight against the pandemic isn’t over, the end is in sight.
What are the omicron subvariants of concern?
Omicron has over 200 sublinaeges being monitored. Here are the subvariants driving cases in the U.S.:
- BA.5 — 83.1% of cases.
- BA.4.6 — 11.9% of cases.
- BF.7 — 2.3% of cases.
- BA.4 — 1.4% of cases.
- BA.2.75 — 1.4% of cases.
What are the top omicron symptoms to look out for?
As I previously reported, omicron subvariants have a shorter incubation period, which is why the symptoms may appear earlier. The worst symptom is a “throat on fire,” said University of California, San Francisco’s Dr. Peter Chin-Hong.
The most common omicron-related symptoms are:
- Cough.
- Fatigue.
- Congestion.
- Runny nose.