MILWAUKEE — As Wisconsin's COVID-19 case curve continues to drop, public health experts are now tracking a new omicron subvariant which has shown up in Wisconsin dubbed BA.2.
"It's about 1.5 times more transmissible or contagious [than the original omicron variant]," Dr. Ben Weston, chief health policy officer with Milwaukee County and an associate professor with the Medical College of Wisconsin, said. "That's pretty impressive because omicron itself was pretty contagious, but then we have to think about the next category which is severity, and when we look at severity, the data is really early right now."
While they continue to track this new subvariant, Dr. Weston added there's a potential light at the end of the tunnel for those Wisconsinites who are fully vaccinated, boosted and taking other preventative measures like masking in public and social distancing right now.
"Hang tight for a couple more weeks," Dr. Weston added. "We are seeing positive trends in cases and positivity and hospitalizations. We're still at record numbers for each of those but the trends are in the right direction."
Watch the entire interview above.