BA.5 Omicron subvariant accounts for nearly 80% new infections in US

The BA.5 Omicron subvariant, now the dominant coronavirus strain in the US, made up nearly 80 per cent of new Covid-19 infections in the country, according to latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The BA.5 subvariant accounted for 77.9 per cent of new infections in the week ending July 16, up from 68.7 per cent a week before, Xinhua news agency reported.

Another new subvariant, BA.4, accounted for 12.8 per cent of new infections, CDC data show.

The two contagious subvariants now made up over 90 per cent of new infections in the US.

Confirmed cases contracted by the two subvariants kept increasing since mid-May, CDC data show.

The two subvariants are more contagious than earlier variants of Omicron, and also appear to evade protection from vaccines and previous infections more easily than most of their predecessors, according to health experts.