9/11/2023 0 Comments Maryland covid boosterThe biggest difference is that the new subvariant is likely to be more contagious. The difference between the original omicron variant, BA.1, and the subvariant, BA.2, is "extremely small," according to researchers at UCLA. How Is It Different From The Original Omicron Variant? "With the movement of all these people crammed together, you can have another surge," she said. "Understandably, you don't have time to put a mask on when you're going to have a bomb dropped on your head. "There's this BA.2 variant of omicron that's circulating in Denmark, and what worries me a lot in that situation is with all of this movement of people out of Ukraine into Eastern Europe," she said. Kimberly Shriner, an infectious disease specialist at Huntington Hospital, told Patch last week that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine could contribute to worldwide spread. But scientists were still debating whether BA.2 will cause another surge in the U.S.ĭr. Infection with BA.1 should protect many residents against BA.2, but vaccination plus that natural infection is even more protective, Gigi Gronvall, an immunologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told the Baltimore Sun.īA.2 cases are rising steadily, making up 23 percent of all cases in the U.S. Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, warned the virus is likely to lead to an increase in cases nationwide but not necessarily another surge. Could The Subvariant Trigger Another Surge? It's clear, she said, "BA.2 is coming onto the scene." 2. Also, she said, not every specimen is genetically sequenced to determine the variant. Keri Althoff, a researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, cautioned that CDC case counts underestimate the true numbers because some people are no longer getting tested and others are testing at home and not reporting the results. Centers for Disease Control said 30 percent of the COVID cases in Maryland are caused by the BA.2 subvariant. Since the first cases were found in early February, there have been a total of 110 BA.2 cases reported as of last week, the Baltimore Sun reported. BA.2 is not yet dominant, according to the Maryland Department of Health. The newly identified subvariant is considered to be more transmissible, but it's not expected to cause more severe illness than the delta variant, according to a preliminary study from Statens Serum Institute in Denmark.īA.2 was first detected in February in Maryland. Here's what you need to know about the subvariant's presence in Maryland. "There's just too much immunity now for this virus to be able to do the same amount of damage that BA.1 did." "It's pretty much the same as BA.1, which is why I'm optimistic we're not going to see a huge surge in cases like we saw with BA.1," Pekosz said. Andrew Pekosz with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told WBAL that Marylanders who contracted the original omicron strain or are vaccinated and boosted should be protected against the new coronavirus variant.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |