NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- New York reportedly had its first four cases of the “stealth omicron” subvariant confirmed on Thursday, also known as BA.2.
The state’s Department of Health confirmed the four cases, detected between Jan. 7-12.
The subvariant, which gets its name because particular genetic traits make it somewhat harder to detect, appears to spread more easily than the original version of omicron, known as BA.1, according to preliminary findings in South Africa and Europe.
Health officials, though, believe the stealth subvariant will not mean a big resurgence in COVID-19 cases.
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"While it's more transmissible than BA.1, there is a lot of recent population immunity from the BA.1 wave, and hopefully not as many susceptible people to infect," Nate Grubaugh, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said.
Grubaugh did say that he believes it’ll become the dominant virus strain in the U.S., as it became dominant in countries like Denmark in a month.
Omicron first turned up in South Africa in November and by December started fueling a surge of coronavirus cases in the United States. Epidemiologists will need time to determine just how virulent "stealth" is and if the current vaccines offer protection.
The World Health Organization classifies omicron overall as a variant of concern, its most serious designation of a coronavirus mutant, but it doesn’t single out BA.2 with a designation of its own. Given its rise in some countries, however, the agency says investigations of BA.2 “should be prioritized."
A case was detected in Connecticut as well, according to state officials. It was found in a sample taken in Fairfield County on Jan. 8. Just under 100 stealth cases have been detected in the U.S. thus far.
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