COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new version of COVID-19 has been found in the United States, and while one Ohio doctor said it may not be as life-threatening as other variants, he still has advice to avoid contracting it.
What You Need To Know
- BA2 is a new variant of the omicron strain of COVID-19
- Dr. Carlos Malvestutto with the Ohio State University Wexner8 Medical Center said it replicates anywhere from 20-50% faster
- The BA2 variant does not appear to cause severe illness
BA2 a new strain of the omicron COVID-19 variant and is the latest now making its way around the world. Dr. Carlos Malvestutto with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center said more than 120 cases of the new variant have been detected in the U.S. already.
"We know that it can replicate even faster,' said Malvesutto. "So it's somewhere between 20-50% faster. So because it can replicate more efficiently we expect it to overtake the BA1 variant."
Like the BA1 omicron variant, the newer one spreads quickly, but it also doesn't appear to cause severe illness.
"It's encouraging to see that the severity of the disease caused by BA2 is really no worse than BA1," he said. "And overall, it seems that BA1, on average, will cause less severe disease than delta. So that's good news."
Dr. Malvestutto said he's heard of a couple of BA2 cases being in Ohio and said that's likely to increase. He said it's important for people to continue to take precautions, like getting vaccinated and wearing masks.
"Some things we know that because omicron is more transmissible that now we recommend using KN95 or N95 masks," he said. "The cloth masks are just not, just not good enough. So that's definitely a recommendation."