In about a month it will be the first anniversary of when the omicron variant of COVID-19 shook governments and public health services around the world. Since then, omicron has had many subvariants, some of which have become dominant strains across the globe.
While omicron BA.5 is still dominant in much of the world, two new subvariants (BQ.1 and BQ.1.1) are now accounting for over 11% of all cases in the United States—and experts believe they could cause havoc this winter. Here’s what you need to know:
Some areas of the country have higher rates of BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 than others. Here’s what the CDC’s NowCast tracker shows regarding the spread of BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 across the country:
You can check out the CDC’s latest Nowcast map here.
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