New Omicron COVID 'Sublineage' Triples In NY, Data Shows

NEW YORK CITY — A once-turbulent sea of coronavirus variants in New York City has evaporated to just one: omicron, according to data.

But a new form of omicron — a so-called "sublineage" dubbed "BA.2" — has emerged and tripled in recent weeks, according to data.

In mid-February, it accounted for just 2.3 percent of cases in the state, with the rest being BA.1 strains of omicron, data shows. The picture changed two weeks later.

"During this time period 41.5% of Omicron sequences were lineage BA.1.1, 50.8% were BA.1, and 7.7% were BA.2," the state's variant data page states.

Gothamist first reported on BA.2's spread across New York, which coincides with the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions in the city.

Indeed, outgoing city health Commissioner Dave Chokshi on Monday unveiled a new "COVID-19 alert system" that found the city is at its lowest risk.

"But I want to be very clear – while this COVID-19 wave is EBBING, we can’t yet say that the pandemic is ENDING," he tweeted. "We still have more work to do to ensure that even more New Yorkers are vaccinated, particularly our kids, and that all are staying up to date with booster doses."

It's unclear how BA.2 could impact COVID-19 cases in the city.

Omicron has a 100 percent stranglehold on COVID-19 cases in the city because it is so highly transmissible. And BA.2 appears to have a "growth advantage" over the now-dominant BA.1 omicron form, according to the World Health Organization.

"Studies are ongoing to understand the reasons for this growth advantage, but initial data suggest that BA.2 appears inherently more transmissible than BA.1, which currently remains the most common Omicron sublineage reported," the WHO site states. "This difference in transmissibility appears to be much smaller than, for example, the difference between BA.1 and Delta. Further, although BA.2 sequences are increasing in proportion relative to other Omicron sublineages (BA.1 and BA.1.1), there is still a reported decline in overall cases globally."

New York City saw 393 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, according to state data — far below the daily peak of 46,000 during the omicron surge's height.