The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear masks indoors and in public spaces if the COVID-19 community levels are high as two new omicron variants gain momentum and are on the path to becoming the dominant strains.
Driving the news: The health agency’s data shows that these COVID-19 subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, make up close to 35% of new infections in the United States as the daily new COVID-19 case averages rise to 100,000 a day.
- But what’s really concerning for experts is the strains’ ability to evade antibodies from vaccines or previous infection, as I previously reported.
What to expect: “That has changed our view for what will happen this summer,” said Dr. Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, per The Boston Globe. Although he still expects cases to decrease, that will happen at a much slower pace now.
- Mokdad even pointed to the possibility of a third wave over the summer, with another rise in cases starting in October, connected to changing seasons and waning immunity — as long as there aren’t any newer variants in the race.
Symptoms to look out for: As I previously reported, the CDC has listed common symptoms for COVID-19. The symptoms are:
- Fever or chills.
- Cough.
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing.
- Fatigue.
- Muscle or body aches.
- Headache.
- New loss of taste or smell.
- Sore throat.
- Congestion or runny nose.
- Nausea or vomiting.
- Diarrhea.
But the most common omicron-related symptoms are:
- Cough.
- Fatigue.
- Congestion.
- Runny nose.