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theschnauzers:
CNN has other details:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/01/health/covid-new-omicron-variants/index.html

New variants are poised to keep Covid-19 circulating at high levels throughout the summer
By Brenda Goodman, CNN
Updated 5:07 PM ET, Wed June 1, 2022

CNN)Even as the US grapples with its most recent wave of Covid-19, new research suggests that variants on the horizon may keep case levels high.

The next influx of infections will probably come from the newer Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, two closely related viruses that were first characterized in South Africa and that landed in the United States around late March, according to the gene sequence sharing site GISAID.
These variants are gaining ground against BA.2, particularly in the central part of the country. Recent research suggests that they escape immunity created by vaccines and past infections.

According to the most recent updates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the genomics company Helix, BA.4 and BA.5 together accounted for an estimated 6% to 7% of new infections in the US in late May.

It's a serious threat," Dr. David Ho, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University in New York City, wrote in an email. "Only a month ago, it was .02 percent."
BA.4 has been detected in at least 30 countries, and BA.5 has been sampled in 32 countries, according to the website Outbreak.info, which is maintained by the Scripps Research Institute.
Ho and his co-authors recently tested antibodies from the blood of vaccinated and boosted people, as well as the antibodies of people who'd recovered from breakthrough Covid-19 infections, against engineered BA.4 and BA.5 viruses in the lab. In each case, they found a drop in potency against BA.4 and BA.5.
They found that that BA.4 and BA.5 viruses are more than four times as likely to escape antibodies in people who've been vaccinated and boosted compared with BA.2 viruses.
More breakthrough infections
All of this means BA.4 and BA.5 are more likely to lead to breakthrough infections, even in people who've had Covid-19 before.
Without upgraded vaccines or boosters, Ho expects that a lot of Americans will get sick in the coming weeks to months. "I think we will see lots of infections but not necessarily more severe disease or deaths," he said.
Ho's research is posted as a preprint, which means it has not been scrutinized by outside experts or published in a medical journal.

South Africa, which is ahead of the US in its BA.4/BA.5 cycle, has seen infections rise but has not seen a corresponding increase in deaths, said Shishi Luo, associate director of bioinformatics and infectious disease at Helix.
"So I think if we extrapolate from South Africa, what we'll see in the US is that BA.4 and BA.5 will increase, because it has some competitive advantages compared to existing strains, but fingers crossed, it is not going to lead to more severe outcomes," Luo said.

One question variant hunters have asked is whether BA.4 and BA.5 can outcompete BA.2.12.1, the highly contagious strain that's currently the main cause of Covid-19 infections in the US.
These branches of the Omicron family tree rose to prominence about the same time; BA.2.12.1 quickly took over the US while BA.4 and BA.5 were establishing themselves in South Africa.
They share some similarities, including changes at location 452 of their genome, a genetic address known for helping variants escape our immunity.
Viruses square off
"It's like boxing," said Dr. Alex Greninger, assistant director of the University of Washington's clinical virology laboratory. "It's like the national champion from South Africa going against the national champion in the United States.
"You don't know how to rank them if they haven't ever fought," he says.

But BA.4 and BA.5 have gone up against BA.2.12.1 in other parts of the world, like the UK. There, scientists found that the time it took the number of infections caused by a variant to double was about 5˝ days for BA.2.12.1 and about a day less for BA.4 and BA.5, indicating that those viruses are spreading faster. The doubling times were included in a recent technical report from the UK Health Security Agency.
"The betting favorite now suggests that BA.4 and BA.5 would be able to take out BA.2.12.1," Greninger said.

Ho and his team think they may have figured out what's giving BA.4 and BA.5 an extra edge.
In addition to all the changes in other Omicron variants that help them shrug off our vaccines, these viruses pulled off a F486V mutation. That's a big change that helps disguise them from our immune system. In the past, it came with a downside: It made the virus' spike less likely to be able to bind to our cells, so they were less competitive. But BA.4 and BA.5 have an additional mutation, called R493Q, that restores their ability to bind to cells, restoring their ability to infect us.

Though BA.4 and BA.5 seem capable of overpowering BA.2.12.1, they haven't squared off in the US, and the fitness of these strains depends a lot on the playing field. The variants aren't following a rulebook.

But for the next few months, experts say, there's just going to be a lot of Covid-19 around us.
"For the summer, going into the winter, I expect these viruses to be out there at relatively high levels," Greninger said. "Just the number of cases, the sheer disruptions of the work force -- It's just a very high, high burden of disease."

theschnauzers:
The US CDCP is lifting the requirement for inbound travelers to th US to have a negative test result

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjj7fSGw6v4AhWsoY4IHfxbBMcQvOMEKAB6BAgGEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2022%2F06%2F10%2Fpolitics%2Fus-to-end-pre-departure-testing-requirement%2Findex.html&usg=AOvVaw2a5R_CwFx9BRCOwFj9NU0W

US will end Covid-19 testing requirement for air travelers entering the country

(CNN) - The Biden administration is expected to announce Friday that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will lift its requirement for travelers to test negative for Covid-19 before entering the US, according to a senior administration official and a US Centers For Disease Control and Prevention official.

The move, which CNN was first to report, will go into effect for US-bound air travelers at midnight on Sunday, the officials said.

The CDC is lifting the restriction that the travel industry had lobbied against for months after determining it was no longer necessary "based on the science and data," the senior administration official said. The CDC has the ability to reassess the order at any time and potentially reinstate it, especially if a new variant develops and poses concern. The measure has been in place since January 2021.

That official said the Biden administration plans to work with airlines to ensure a smooth transition with the change, but it will likely be a welcome move for most in the industry.

In a statement to CNN, the CDC said, "The Covid-19 pandemic has now shifted to a new phase, due to the widespread uptake of highly effective Covid-19 vaccines, the availability of effective therapeutics, and the accrual of high rates of vaccine- and infection-induced immunity at the population level in the United States. Each of these measures has contributed to lower risk of severe disease and death across the United States."

Travel industry officials have been increasingly critical of the requirement in recent weeks and directly urged the Biden administration to end the measure, arguing it was having a chilling effect on an already fragile economy, according to Airlines for America chief Nick Calio, whose group met recently with White House officials.

The travel industry, and some scientific experts, said the policy had been out of date for months.

Lawmakers, including Democrats, had also advocated for lifting the requirement in recent weeks.

Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said, "I'm glad CDC suspended the burdensome coronavirus testing requirement for international travelers, and I'll continue to do all I can to support the strong recovery of our hospitality industry."

White House officials met last month with travel industry officials, who pressed the Biden administration to end its requirements that vaccinated international travelers take a coronavirus test before flying to the United States.

Airlines for America said its members -- including American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines -- had believed lifting the requirements would lead more foreigners to visit the US.

The trade association told CNN that in mid-May, domestic travel came within 7 percentage points of pre-pandemic levels, but international travel lagged at 14% below normal.

US Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow praised the decision.

"Prior to the pandemic, travel was one of our nation's largest industry exports. The lifting of this requirement will enable the industry to lead the way toward a broader US economic and jobs recovery," Dow said in a statement.

The industry has criticized the policy as out of date for months, and some medical experts have also questioned its utility

Testing international arrivals doesn't make much sense to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

"I've been bemused about that for a long time because we've got plenty of Covid here! It's not as though we're trying to keep Covid out," Schaffner told CNN in March. "It's here already."

Alenaveda:
Wow, lot of time since I posted an update here. Ok, here we go:

The Health Ministry of the City of Buenos Aires has announced that starting today the use in closed areas and public transportation of the face masks is not longer a requiriment, as the numbers of cases of coronavirus have been decreasing for the last 14 days (we've been through the fourth wave during the last couple of months, however numbers are not nearly close to what we experienced in the previous waves in cases, ICU occupation and deaths, thanks to the vaccination plan).

Alenaveda:

--- Quote from: Alenaveda on June 16, 2022, 08:03:39 AM ---Wow, lot of time since I posted an update here. Ok, here we go:

The Health Ministry of the City of Buenos Aires has announced that starting today the use in closed areas and public transportation of the face masks is not longer a requirement, as the numbers of cases of coronavirus have been decreasing for the last 14 days (we've been through the fourth wave during the last couple of months, however numbers are not nearly close to what we experienced in the previous waves in cases, ICU occupation and deaths, thanks to the vaccination plan).

--- End quote ---

Just to clarify things, face masks are no longer a requirement on the city's public transportation what means the Buenos Aires Metro system only. On buses and trains - that are under national jurisdiction - that requirement is still on.

theschnauzers:

https://deadline.com/2022/07/omicron-ba-5-covid-variant-dominant-ba-five-one-1235058423/

Omicron BA.5: One Variant To Rule Them All…For Now

Today, the more-infectious Omicron BA.5 subvariant is officially the dominant Covid strain in the U.S. Up until how, BA.5 has been tied to its sister Omicron subvariant, BA.4, as both had steadily outcompeted BA.2.12.1 — which itself had been driving cases for the past month or so.

After the original Omicron variant appeared on U.S. shores late last year and caused the deadliest wave of the pandemic, a succession of Omicron subvariants have come and gone: BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.2.12.1 and now BA.4 and BA.5.

BA.5 was first identified in South Africa on February 26. Less than a month ago, on June 4, it only accounted for 9.6% of cases in the U.S., while predecessor BA.2.12.1 sat atop the heap at 62%. Today, the CDC estimates the subvarient is responsible for about 54% of new cases here. That’s double BA.2.12.1, which now accounts for 27% of infections. BA.5’s rise also leaves sister subvariant BA.4 in the dust at 16%. It’s a faster ascention than that of any other variant over the course of the pandemic. And there’ve been a lot of them.

One reason BA.5 is so dominant is that it seems to be more transmissible than even BA.2.12.1 — (BA.4 has some of the same key spike protein mutations as BA.5, but hasn’t had the same impact.

“The Omicron sub-variant BA.5 is the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen,” said Eric Topal, who is Founder and Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, Professor of Molecular Medicine and Executive Vice-President of Scripps Research, in a substack post last week. “It takes immune escape, already extensive, to the next level, and, as a function of that, enhanced transmissibility, well beyond Omicron (BA.1) and other Omicron family variants that we’ve seen.”

In other words, BA.5 is much better at evading the immunity provided by vaccines and especially good at dodging the immunity conferred by previous infection.

For example, BA.4 and BA.5 drove a substantial surge in South Africa recently that was not impacted by the county’s high level of immunity.

Per the journal Nature, those who have “hybrid immunity” from vaccination and a past infection are less able to ward off the BA.4 or BA.5 than they were previous strains. That’s because the vaccines we have now are targeting the spike proteins of previous strains. And the new variants have some very different mutations.

While vaccines are less effective, they’re and still more effective than immunization through infection. The jabs also help those infected with BA.4 and BA.5 better ward off the virus’s nastiest effects.

While cases have remained fairly static across the U.S., the New York Times notes that that may be more a result of the measuring stick than the actual measurement. The paper reports that with local and federal cuts to testing services, “lab-based P.C.R. testing capacity in July will be only half of what it was in March.” Add to that the increased use of at-home tests, the results of which are generally not reported, and virus surveillance across the nation is greatly reduced from what it was even six months ago.

Hospitalizations and deaths have not risen meaningfully, either, but then in Portugal it took three weeks after the BA.5 peak in cases for deaths to peak.

A more potent ability to reinfect also means that BA.5 has a larger pool of potential carriers. While other variants are limited by the protection afforded by inoculation, BA.5 can make its way back through populations who assume they’re more protected than they actually are.

“BA.4/5 drove a substantial case wave in South Africa regardless of their high level of immunity,” observed Kaitlyn Jetelina about two weeks ago. Jetelina tweets and blogs under the moniker Your Local Epidemiologist.

She goes on to note that “in South Africa, the BA.4/5 wave contributed to excess deaths, but fewer than past waves.”

In Europe, Portugal is the country hardest hit by the new Omicron subvariants. It experienced a peak in cases on May 16, according to the World Health Organization. Deaths in that country peaked almost exactly three weeks later, on June 6.

What does that mean for the U.S.?

Our future is harder to predict based on other countries’ experiences than it was previously. Portugal got hit much harder than the States in the winter 2000-2001 Delta wave and less hard by last winter’s Omicron surge, which ravaged the U.S. That might be good for us, since the original Omicron is likely more closely related than Delta to BA.5. Previous Omicron infections may provide more protection. Our winter Omicron wave was more recent, as well, which helps. But Portugal has a higher booster rate than the U.S.

One thing is for certain: This won’t be the last variant we see.

Topol warns that “new versions of the virus…are accelerating and we’re not done yet, by any stretch.”

Indeed, like tropical storms in the Caribbean this summer, there is a line of new variants already on their way. And experts say significant mutations — especially in the Omicron subvariants — are coming with increasing speed.

A new strain known as BA.5.1 caused the largest outbreak of cases ever in Macau last week, which prompted local officials to put a large swath of the region under lockdown.

BA.5.1 has turned up in the U.S. in small numbers, as well as the U.K. and Portugal. The strain has been described as “the daughter of BA.5,” and Christine Pagel, Professor and Director of University College London’s Clinical Operational Research Unit, wrote in a piece last month that “it looks like BA.5 and 5.1 will likely win out to become the overall dominant variants.”

Since then, however, BA.2.75 has reared its head. While it’s not in the U.S. yet, the subvariant of BA.2 has been detected in England, Germany and India, where it reportedly has been found in 18% of samples. And it’s spreading fast. See chart below for graph of its growth in India.

More, unfortunately, to come.

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