San Diego County is bracing for a more contagious, silent variant of Omicron, which scientists say is likely already in the population but is a strain that takes time to identify.
The daily docket from the county Health and Human Services Agency still does not record any cases of Omicron Stealth or BA.2.
However, the laboratory company that applies the tests to detect COVID-19, Helix, considers that the variant is already present. In just two weeks, it has become the predominant one in many country regions, including California.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported this week that the Stealth version of Omicron accounts for 35 percent of new positive cases in the country and is the dominant variant in the nation's northeast.
Scientists call it the stealth version because it was able to start spreading without being initially noticed by detection systems in the scientific community.
The CDC does not have a specific figure for Omicron Stealth infections in California; however, it ties this state with others as a region.
According to the CDC, in the region that includes California, Arizona, and Nevada, the current infection rate for Omicron Stealth is 27.7 percent. It represents at least 10 percent more than the previous week in the same region.
Helix says the new variant accounts for between 50 and 70 percent of new cases in some areas of the northeast.
The director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, recently said that the BA.2 variant is more contagious than the original Omicron, but it is not more dangerous.
Dr. Fauci explained that the new version could soon become dominant because it is "50 to 60 percent more contagious" than the original Omicron, or BA.1.
Fauci also reiterated that Omicron Stealth might be more contagious. Still, without being more dangerous, because "when you look at the cases, they do not seem to be more serious, and they do not seem to evade immune responses, either due to vaccines or infections," he said.
