(Carrick Pharmacy News) The number of COVID cases in the US is rising and it is linked to a new dominant Omicron strain.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this variant is now the most dominant strain of COVID-19 in the US.
This new dominant strain is called BA.5.
What we know about the Omicron variant:
- The three most common subvariants of Omicron are BA.2, BA.4, and BA.5.
- Omicron appears to spread easier than previous variants including the Delta variant.
- Infection caused by Omicron seems to causes less severe disease than previous variants. (However, some people may require hospitalization with this variant).
- We are seeing similar symptoms with the Omicron variant when compared to previous variants.
- We saw Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 subvariants emerge within the last year (BA.1 in November of 2021 and BA.2 emerged in January 2022).
- We are seeing people becoming reinfected even if they have recently recovered from COVID-19.
We can expect new variants to continue to emerge. This is because viruses are always changing. And the virus that causes COVID-19 is no different.
Staying up to date with your COVID vaccines is one way to protect yourself.
The CDC strongly recommends vaccination as vaccines help protect against severe illness, hospitalization and death.
Recently a FDA advisory committee voted in favor of including an Omicron component in future COVID-19 vaccines. This component would be included in COVID boosters hopefully by the fall of 2022.
Speak with your healthcare provider if you have any questions.
