COVID cases are rising all across the world. For the first time after many months, India has recorded more than 1 lakh active COVID cases. In the last 24 hours, India has recorded 18,819 new COVID cases which is a four-month high.
So, what's driving this surge in COVID cases? In the US, the BA.4 and BA.5 sub variants of the Omicron are held accountable for the massive rise in infections. These sub variants of the same variant of coronavirus are said to be worse than the parent variant, which is in fact notorious for its high transmission rate. In India, BA.4 and BA.5 cases have been reported in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and majority of the cases are due to the BA.2 Omicron variant.
The Omicron variant is the latest on the radar of the World Health Organisation (WHO) since the beginning of the year. The variant was fast enough to take over its aggressive ancestor Delta variant, which led the second wave of the COVID infection worldwide.
BA.4 and BA.5 are responsible for 52% of the total COVID infections in the US, as per reports.