The United States’ national public health agency, on Tuesday, declared that the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron was currently the most predominant COVID variant causing infections across the country.

The sub-variant was highly transmissible and accounted for around 54.9% of the COVID-19 variants in the country, as of March 26. The variant constituted 39% of the variants in the US for the week ending March 19, estimated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The surge in COVID-19 cases due to the BA.2 variant in many parts of Asia and Europe have raised concerns in the United States. According to new CDC guidelines introduced last month, though most Americans were in low COVID transmission, still surge may occur due to the variant′s high transmissibility. (Reuters, March 29, 2022)