thanks. dana: washington state announcing a new version of omicron was detected there earlier this month. the new sub variant has turned up in parts of asia and europe. jonathan serrie live in atlanta home of the cdc headquarters. good morning, dana. ba2 is the name of this new sub variant and it has some additional mutations including to the spike protein but researchers at this point don t know how it compares in terms of trance missability or the severity of disease it caused but serves as a reminder as long as the coronavirus is spreading it has the potential month mutate. as the omicron surge shows easing in parts of the globe w.h.o. is urging the community to get 70% of every country s population vaccinated by july. it is dangerous to assume that omicron will be the last variant or that we are in the
on average, nearly 90,000 infections have been reported per day in the last week. there are more than 16,000 people in hospital with covid, and that number has been falling. 277 deaths have been reported, that s of people who died within 28 days of a positive test, though some will have died of other causes. on average in the past week, 261 deaths were announced every day. on vaccinations, more than 37 million people have now had a boosterjab, which means more than 64% of those aged 12 and over have now had three vaccine doses. our health editor hugh pym is here. a new strain of omicron has been detected, how worried are the authorities? detected, how worried are the authorities? ~ ., ., authorities? well, the dominant strain is known authorities? well, the dominant strain is known as authorities? well, the dominant strain is known as ba1 authorities? well, the dominant strain is known as em and - authorities? well, the dominant strain is known as em and they| authorities? well,
can come off. are you saying that for people who have been infected by omicron and so many people have, that ba2 would reinfect them or would they have some immunity dpens it? they would likely have some immunity against it. a lot of people have not been infected with omicron but with delta. we have a lot of unvaccinated individual who is have not seen any virus infection and they will be susceptible. the numbers started going down and they got stuck. they got stuck because of the ba2. it s odds because in some countries, it doesn t seem to be that much of an issue.
winter is about to end and we re going to go through a spring thaw of covid-19 or we re in for another six weeks of this because of the ba2. i think it s fine to set dates. it could get thrown out the window. that s the big thing that we really need to consider at this point. okay. you say set aspirational dates. sounds like you agree that a week from now, two weeks from now, the end of the month is too soon to start lifting the mask man dates. sd the truth is ba2 never shows up or never rears its ugly head. two weeks from now may be okay. that s why i m not a big fan of setting dates. let s see,000 traje how the trajectory goes. if it s not accelerating then you can say next week the masks