What comes after Omicron? New variants are emerging.

National Geographic – Infections over the last three months have been dominated by new sublineages of Omicron: BA.2, BA.2.12.1, BA.4., and BA.5. In the U.K., symptomatic infections have steadily increased since August 27—the day they hit lowest level this year—according to the ZOE COVID-19 study, an App-based project in which patients enter their symptoms on their phone. In the U.S., infection rates among U.S. nursing home residents have risen nine-fold since the end of April, and by August death rates almost quadrupled in this group, according to the data compiled by the AARP Public Policy Institute and the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio. While WHO has not anointed any of these recent Omicron derivatives with a Greek letter of their own, experts fear these variants could undermine the new boosters and treatments, leading to a new wave of infections and deaths.