One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
The More Contagious BA.2 Version Of Omicron Is Now The Most Common In The US
Lylliette Ramirez gets a COVID-19 test done by a healthcare worker in January in North Miami, Florida.
(
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
)
A subvariant of omicron that's even more contagious than the original is now the most common COVID-19 strain in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In L.A.
The Centers for Disease Control has now also approved the second booster for people 50 and older — and the L.A. County Health Department will begin giving out those shots Wednesday, March 30, at its public health sites. You can find them at VaccinateLACounty.com.
The CDC estimates that the BA.2 strain now accounts for more than half — 54.9% — of all coronavirus infections nationwide, according to new data.
It's even more prevalent in certain parts of the country. For example, over 70% of COVID-19 cases in the Northeast are BA.2, the CDC estimates.
The BA.2 variant does not appear to make people any sicker than the original omicron strain, and vaccines still offer protection against it.
But health experts had feared that the highly transmissible variant could trigger another surge in cases in the U.S. as it has in the U.K. and other parts of Europe.
Sponsored message
On Tuesday, the FDA authorized and the CDC recommended a second booster dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for older people and certain immunocompromised people.
The authorization comes at an opportune time, some health experts said, since an uptick in people protected by vaccines and boosters could help limit the number of deaths and hospitalizations caused by BA.2.
At the same time, CDC estimates showed no known infections caused by the once-common delta variant between March 20-26.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
