A medical staff member prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Times Square, New York, the United States, June 22, 2022. (Michael Nagle/Xinhua)
COVID-19 cases have been underreported to one degree or another throughout the pandemic for reasons including the lack of testing available in some cases and asymptomatic cases that may have been overlooked, according to CNN.
NEW YORK, July 12 (Xinhua) — Official statistics of COVID-19 case numbers severely underestimate true infection numbers, depriving the United States of vital information as the most contagious coronavirus variant to date takes the upper hand, CNN reported on Monday.
The BA.5 mutation, derived from the Omicron variant, became the dominant disease variant in the United States last week, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and “this subvariant has key mutations that help it evade antibodies generated from vaccination or previous infection, contributing to its rapid spread,” the report said.
This will lead to “escalating case numbers and more hospitalizations,” predicted Eric Topol, a cardiologist and professor of molecular medicine with Scripps Research, quoted in the report. “A good thing is that this does not seem to be accompanied by the intensive care admissions and deaths characteristic of the previous variants, however this clearly remains a concern”, he underlined.
COVID-19 cases have been underreported to one degree or another throughout the pandemic for reasons including lack of available testing in some cases and asymptomatic cases that may have been overlooked, the report recalls.
However, despite the use of rapid home self-tests, and overall changing attitudes toward the pandemic, the United States has not come up with a reliable way to track transmission levels, the report said. End
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