The COVID BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants are highly transmissible. Here’s what else people in CT need to know. – CT Insider

Connecticut has seen an upward trend in COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks. While it may be possible that this increase is due to the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, public health officials say that its too soon to tell.

Dr. Manisha Juthani, commissioner of Connecticuts public health department, said its unclear exactly how widely BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading in Connecticut or the degree to which the new subvariants are contributing to the states recent uptick in COVID-19 cases and test positivity rate.

Its hard to say that the slight rise that were seeing is related to (the subvariants) or not, she said. Are we seeing this rise because of that? It is possible. I just dont have enough conclusive evidence to say that its absolutely the reason why.

Juthani, who was previously an infectious disease specialist at Yale New Haven Health, said that while the states COVID-19 numbers are still lower than they were this spring, the upward trend is increasingly hard to deny.

I dont want to sound the alarm every few weeks and then people start tuning out any sort of alarms, she said. But what I can say is that we are going in that direction.

Connecticut, like every other U.S. state, does not determine the variant of each positive case of coronavirus. Instead, the state Department of Public Halth, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, work with scientists, universities, hospitals and diagnostic labs to collect representative samples of positive tests for variant determination. These results are used to generate prevalence models to help public health officials estimate which variants predominate in states and across regions.

Yale New Havens Clinical Virology Lab, which mostly tracks outpatient samples from Fairfield, New Haven and New London counties, indicates that new cases are being driven by variants BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5. Regionally, the CDC estimates that the majority (roughly 42%) of new cases in New England are caused by BA.5.

According to Connecticuts public health department, new cases are up statewide with higher concentrations in the high population corridor between Stamford, New Haven and Hartford. This is despite overall higher vaccination rates in those areas.

Hospital utilization is up in the same area according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services. This upward trend can be seen across New England and New York. Every New England state but Vermont has over 70% hospital utilization. Connecticut is in the middle portion of the pack at 75% utilization. Rhode Island leads at 91%.

BA.5 has been reported to be more transmissible and immune evasive than previous strains of the coronavirus. Several studies have demonstrated that both BA.4 and BA.5 are more able to escape antibodies than previous variants. This is true for monoclonal antibody treatments, antibodies from prior infection and antibodies from vaccination.

Because of this immune evasion reports are emerging of more rapid reinfections than before. A CDC study documented ten cases of reinfection within 90 days of prior infection with the Delta variant across four states.

There have been a series of variants over time that have shared a couple characteristics, said Mark Adams deputy director at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine. One is increased transmissibility ... but increasingly they seem to be driven by the ability to escape prior immune protection from SARS-COV-2.

The upshot is that even though this variant is more infectious it is not clear that it causes more severe or unusual infections. A large-scale study from Qatar indicates that vaccination is still extremely (97%) effective at preventing the worst outcomes even if vaccinated people still get sick.

It can infect people who have been previously infected but they tend to get a very mild infection, said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

While some reports have emerged about unusual symptoms, such as viral meningitis, its not clear that this is a function of the new strain or a function of more cases increasing the likelihood of documenting rare complications.

We have heard, anecdotally, stories of a variety of symptoms (and recurrent infections) said Schaffner. But it isnt clear if its long symptoms or relapse or recurrent infection.

Its also not clear yet whether this wave of BA.4/5 will cause hospital capacity issues locally like it did in Portugal earlier in the spring. Transmission, severe infection and hospital use are complicated to predict.

Its really hard to predict the number of infections and the number of hospitalizations, said Adams. He encouraged people to get boosted if they could.

Its a real benefit. All the studies show that vaccination and boosting reduce the severity of disease, said Adams. The difference might be smaller (with the new variants) but its not going to be nothing.

See the article here:
The COVID BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants are highly transmissible. Here's what else people in CT need to know. - CT Insider