New contagious omicron subvariants causing concern in New York

While COVID-19 cases continue to drop in Washington state, health officials in New York state are concerned about the fast spread of two new subvariants of the omicron strain.

Central New York is the new hotspot for COVID-19 infections in the United States because of the new subvariants, which doctors say appear to be 25% more contagious than BA.2, the most common subvariant of the coronavirus spreading around Washington state.

Doctors say the new subvariants do not appear to cause more severe illness than the previous variants.

They say the majority of people reporting moderate symptoms in New York have been boosted.

A virologist tracking all this said the subvariants have been detected in more than 40 countries and in more than 30 states. However, they have not been detected in Washington state.

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