Omicron: What we know about the latest sub-variant of coronavirus
Yahoo Finance Reporter Anjalee Khemlani reports on what we know about a newly discovered version of the coronavirus.
Video Transcript
EMILY MCCORMICK: Welcome back. We're watching the latest on the pandemic as the first reported case of the so-called stealth omicron subvariant was discovered in Connecticut. Yahoo Finance health reporter Anjalee Kehlani joins us now for more. And Anjalee, based on what we know now, how does this subvariant compare to omicron and previous variants that we've been seeing?
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Well, Emily, we know that this variant actually follows similarly to omicron in that it is very transmissible. So let's just break down what's happened. We know that this variant or subvariant was detected in Europe and Asia. It really was creating some of the spread in Europe. We saw reports of that. We've detected it here in the US. But we do still majority of our cases are the omicron variant. I believe it's in about 22 states right now.
Just a little bit of background on what it is. It is more transmissible, so that's really where the concern is coming from and why scientists and experts are watching it right now. Not too much of a concern because we're not quite sure about the immune evasion that it might carry. So far, it looks like the vaccines are still holding up. It is called the stealth variant, and that can be kind of scary, but most experts say that that's because of just where it came from. Just, it appeared, apparently, out of nowhere.
But they're still trying to trace the lineage of it, which is pretty important to know so you can understand the characteristics of it. As of right now, that's all the details we have. We know that with the continued fight against the pandemic, the omicron variant continues to put pressure on healthcare systems. And we are starting to see that climb in deaths surpassing 3,000 in a day over the weekend. So really just concerning-- sorry-- in the past couple of days. So really just concerning. A number still there for us to watch as we continue to battle this pandemic. Back to you.
