An airport-based COVID-19 surveillance program detected the first known U.S. case of the highly transmissible omicron BA.2 subvariant in December, according to a new study that was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We enrolled arriving international air travelers in SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance, using molecular testing of pooled nasal swabs, and sequencing positive samples for viral lineage,” wrote the authors of the report, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. “Traveler-based genomic surveillance provided early warning variant detection; we reported the first U.S. Omicron BA.2 and first BA.3 in North America, weeks before next reported detection.” The results suggest that pooled testing of international travelers may be an effective way to monitor new variants of the virus, the New York Times reported. The U.S. COVID numbers continue to decline and the nation is now averaging 30,387 new cases a day, according to a New York Times tracker, down 15% from two weeks ago, but slightly higher than Thursday’s count. The average daily number of hospitalizations stands at 19,875, down 39% from two weeks ago. Deaths are averaging 830 a day, down 36% from two weeks ago, but still an undesirably high number. Globally, there have been 477.4 million confirmed cases, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, and 6.1 million deaths. The U.S. leads the world with 79.9 million cases and 975,862 fatalities.
Source: Marketwatch