Public health officials are warning of a fast-spreading new coronavirus variant that’s been linked to a growing number of cases across India. The BA.2.75 variant evolved from the highly contagious Omicron lineage and appears to be outcompeting rival forms of the virus. This comes as the BA.5 Omicron subvariant now accounts for a majority of cases in the United States, where COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to rise and test positivity rates have climbed to their third-worst levels of the pandemic.
