Latest Omicron Subvariant XBB.1.5 Now Causing 40% Of Covid Cases In US: CDC

The latest Omicron variant XBB.1.5 is responsible for more than 40 percent of confirmed Covid cases in the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement.

As per the latest weekly estimate of proportions of circulating variants, 40.5 percent of coronavirus infections in the country has been attributed to XBB.1.5.

The second most contagious variant is BQ.1.1, which infected 26.9 percent.

BQ.1 is estimated to cause 18.3 infections, the CDC data tracker shows. It is followed by BA.5 at 3.7 percent and XBB at 3.6 percent.

The virus that causes Covid-19 is constantly changing and accumulating mutations in its genetic code over time. New variants of the virus are expected to continue to emerge, according to the federal health agency. Some variants will emerge and disappear, while others will emerge and continue to spread and may replace previous variants, CDC researchers say.

Although the new coronavirus subvariant is spreading rapidly in the U.S., overall positive cases and deaths are falling, as per the New York Tines’ latest data.

Covid positive cases dwindled by 11 percent in the country in the last two weeks. Covid deaths are 22 percent down from the rate recorded a fortnight ago.

At the same time, Covid hospitalizations in the U.S. are on a rising trend.

U.S. hospitals reported a 7 percent increase in the number of Covid patients in the last two weeks. The number of I.C.U. admissions due to the worse stage of the viral disease increased by 11 percent.

44372 people are hospitalized due to Covid. 5312 of these patients are admitted in intensive care units.

With 2898 new cases of coronavirus infection reporting on Sunday, the total U.S. Covid cases reached 100,752,629, as per Johns Hopkins University’s latest data.

The total number of people losing their lives due to coronavirus infection in the country rose to 1,092,674.

A total of 99,546,779 people in the U.S. have recovered from the killer disease so far, Worldometers data shows.

832 additional deaths were reported globally on Sunday, taking the total number of people who lost their lives due to the pandemic so far to 6,691,457.

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