The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s(CDC) latest assessments indicate that the highly contagious Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 currently accounts for roughly 90% of all Covid-19 infections recorded in the US.
Since late last year, the prevalence of XBB.1.5 has been rising; this week, it is predicted to account for 90% of all new Covid-19 cases in the nation, up from 85% last week, per usnews.
The United States has avoided a significant seasonal COVID-19 surge like it did the previous two years, as seen by the drop in coronavirus infections, hospitalizations, and fatalities.
The major cause is most likely the population’s high degree of immunity, which can be attributed to vaccination, infection, or both.
While XBB.1.5 represented fewer than 1% of cases countrywide in November of last year, the CDC first began monitoring it.
Since then, the US is seeing a rapid expansion of the strain.
Early research reveals that XBB.1.5 includes a few unsettling alterations that indicate it may be the strain that is now most transmissible, being much more infectious than previous strains.
Even though XBB.1.5 is more contagious, researchers noted that the disease does not appear to be becoming worse.
There was a report over the origins of COVID-19 this week after the Department of Energy apparently changed its position, declaring with “low” confidence that the virus arose from an unintentional laboratory breach in China.
