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How alarmed should you be about omicron subvariant BA.2?

(Photo supplied/Centers For Disease Control and Prevention)

Another COVID-19 variant is gaining ground, but health experts say this one isn’t cause for alarm.

B-A-2 isn’t actually a variant, but an Omicron subvariant, meaning it’s mostly the same as the last version. It is more contagious, and has been blamed for a rise in cases in countries in Europe and Asia. Community Health Network chief medical officer Ram Yeleti predicts cases will rise here too.

But Yeleti says between the three-point-six-million Hoosiers who have been vaccinated and the thousands who contracted COVID during the Omicron surge the last few months, he expects most cases to be mild, closer to a cold than the illness which flooded hospitals just two months ago. Cases have plunged 98-percent in that span.

Yeleti says the virus is following a typical pattern, mutating into a more infectious but less deadly form to increase its ability to find new hosts. But he cautions the virus still poses a threat to the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. And he says the pandemic’s path remains unpredictable. Vaccination rates in Africa, for instance, are still under 20-percent, giving the virus new opportunities to evolve into a more dangerous version.

360 Hoosiers are hospitalized with COVID-19, the fewest at any point in the pandemic.

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5 comments

Dave Owens March 25, 2022 at 5:48 am

It’s all fear porn is what it is it’s bs , they love scare tactics.

Reply
James Johns March 25, 2022 at 8:07 am

There was NEVER any cause for alarm…fear is a lie!

Reply
Mark Nesbitt March 25, 2022 at 1:49 pm

I would like to know how many deaths over the yearly averages since the new “black plague” has hit must not be many cause no one is talking about it.

Reply
Charles U Farley March 28, 2022 at 10:53 am

None. Last I checked, the average increased by something like 50k globally, which is basically a rounding error.

Reply
John Gee March 26, 2022 at 6:04 am

What kind of variant will be here upon the midterm elections?

Reply

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