It’s not headline news anymore, but a lot of people are still getting Covid. Nationwide, about 106,000 new infections are reported every day – and we know that’s just a small percentage of the actual number of cases. And Covid is still a killer, especially for those not vaccinated and boosted. Currently, more than 270 Americans are dying daily.
Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, says the highly contagious BA.5 Omicron subvariant is now the dominant strain in the U.S.
“BA.5 is the most transmissible variant or subvariant we have dealt with since the beginning of the pandemic,” he said. “BA.5 is better able to evade the immunity we get from vaccination and or previous infection than any of the previous variants or subvariants.”
Because Omicron and its subvariants are so contagious, it’s easy to get reinfected. And while that may not seem like a big deal for those who had a mild case of Covid, it is something health experts worry about.
“We’ve seen with recent data that if you get Covid again, you can get complications that you didn’t get the first time,” Dr. Swartzberg said. “Every time you get Covid, you’re setting yourself up for a risk for not only complications with the acute illness, but also the risk of getting long Covid.”
More Info: A new dominant omicron strain in the U.S. is driving up cases — and reinfections
