accounted for nearly 55% of cases in the United States last week, the CDC data showed, with the earlier strain of omicron accounting for 40%. BA.2 has slowly been gaining dominance for the last six weeks, according to the federal data.
“Based on what we’re seeing in Europe, we’re expecting to see a rise in cases in the United States as the BA.2 variant spreads,” said Philadelphia Department of Public Health spokesperson James Garrow. But, he noted, cases generally rise exponentially as a new strain becomes dominant, which has not yet
been seen with BA.2. City health officials hope high levels of vaccination and the “extraordinarily large” number of people who were infected with omicron will help stave off a surge, though it’s impossible to predict.to determine what share of cases in Philadelphia are BA.2 is still in progress, he said. In the region containing Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., BA.2 made up just over half of cases in the last week.
In New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, BA.2 accounted for 71% of the last week’s cases, according to the CDC. New Jersey’s daily average number of new cases has increased slightly over the last several days, with the daily average above 1,000 on Monday, compared with about 825 a week earlier.