California Covid: Test Positivity Up Nearly 50% In One Week As New Omicron Variant BA.2.12.2 Begins To Show

Covid check positivity in California is up 47.6% prior to now week, in response to the California State information dashboard. One week in the past, the 7-day day by day check positivity price was 2.1%. Immediately, it sits at 3.1%. That’s fairly a bounce for a metric that’s averaged over seven days to account for day by day fluctuations in information reporting and testing.

The rise comes as a brand new model of Omicron, a subvariant of BA.2 known as BA.2.12.2 is making inroads within the area and throughout the nation. The sublineage is believed to have a 23%–27% progress benefit over BA.2, in response to the New York State Division of Public Well being.

Nationally, BA.2.12.2 now accounts for 19% of all new circumstances particularly sequenced for variants within the nation, in response to information launched Tuesday by the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management. Which means the pressure — barely on the nationwide radar two weeks in the past — is now being recognized in near 1 in 5 newly-sequenced circumstances.

California, nevertheless, doesn’t break Omicron information out into sublineages, a observe that made it exhausting to trace the rise of BA.2 and is now making it exhausting to chart BA.2.12.1, since all Omicron — which accounts for 99.2% of the state’s circumstances — is lumped in collectively.

However reporting signifies that within the southwestern area made up of California, Nevada and Arizona, BA.2.12.2 is liable for about 9% of recent circumstances. That information, nevertheless, is over per week previous. The subvariant’s share of circumstances has possible grown. Whether or not or not BA.2.12.2 is driving infections in California is unclear. However one thing is.

The final day for which full day by day case information is out there on the California Covid information dashboard is April 13, which noticed 3,674 new infections.

California now solely stories new circumstances in a lump sum two occasions per week, after which backdates the numbers over the next weeks. The latest lump-sum report was posted immediately.

The three-day circumstances whole reported by California immediately is 15,747. That averages out to five,297 a day. That’s a 42% rise in 9 days — since April 13 — which roughly parallels the rise in check positivity. After all, the variety of checks reported within the state continues to fall, so the uncooked variety of circumstances is prone to be greater.