The World Health Organization is now monitoring four omicron subvariants that are showing transmission advantage relating to other circulating ones, including XBB.1.5, which has become dominant in the U.S. The other three are BF.7, BQ.1 and BA.2.75, the WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update. For now, the agency said it has no additional data on XBB.1.5, but BA.2.75.2 is showing the most neutralization resistance to sera from vaccinated and COVID-infected patients.
In the U.S., the seven-day average of new U.S. COVID cases stood at 50,839 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker. That’s down 20% from two weeks ago and below the recent peak of 70,508 on Christmas Eve. The daily average for hospitalizations was down 18% at 39,272. The average for deaths was 498, up 5% from two weeks ago. The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 668.3 million on Friday, while the death toll rose above 6.73 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world with 101.9 million cases and 1,103,681 fatalities.
