Andrew Joseph reports for StatNews on a new coronavirus variant, which some believe is even more easily transmissible than the Delta variant. It is called AY.4.2 or Delta Plus. What do we know about it?
AY.4.2 is still not prevalent in the US. The CDC says that there are fewer than 10 cases reported in its database. But, the CDC does not have nearly as good a handle on different strains of the novel coronavirus as other countries.
In the United Kingdom, AY.4.2 represents 10 percent of the Covid cases. The UK Health Security Agency reports that it is growing and “increasing in frequency.” Fortunately, it appears that the Covid vaccines are effective against it.
Much about AY.4.2 remains unknown. Is AY.4.2 better able to attack people’s immune systems than the Delta variant? We don’t yet know. Time will tell whether it is growing in prevalence because of a biological difference or because of the nature of the communities in which it is spreading.
The evidence will come together when AY.4.2 is around longer and in different countries. Right now, some experts say that it brings with it a similar likelihood of hospitalization and death as the Delta variant.
It’s also still unclear whether we will see Covid variants that are not Delta-related.
The US and other countries are leagues behind the United Kingdom in terms of its sequencing system for Covid. So, we don’t know a lot about what’s happening in the US when it comes to Covid variants. The US is reporting an overall decline in Covid transmission rates.
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