Though BA.2 likely in the region, Whatcom health department awaiting variant test results
Though it is still awaiting confirmation as test samples are sequenced, the Whatcom County Health Department said it is possible that more than half of all new cases in the multi-state region are the BA.2 variant.
That follows the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention trends for what has been seen nationally and regionally for the highly contagious subvariant of Omicron.
“We do not have Whatcom County specific numbers for the BA.2 variant because all test samples are not sequenced,” Whatcom County Co-Health Officer Dr. Greg Thompson told The Bellingham Herald in an email Wednesday, March 30. “The CDC estimates that 55% of all cases nationwide and 59% of cases in our multistate region (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington) are BA.2.”
Thompson went on to note that the BA.2 currently does not seem to be fueling any increases in COVID-19 activity in Whatcom County, as “our case and hospitalization numbers so far have generally been flat or decreasing over the past several weeks.”
As of data released Monday, March 28, on the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard, Whatcom County had a weekly COVID-19 infection rate of 55 new cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from March 13-19. That rate has remained relatively stable for more than a week, and it’s only a fraction of what it was during the height of the Omicron surge, when Whatcom’s weekly rate topped out at 1,701 cases per 100,000 residents Jan. 7-13.
Likewise, Whatcom’s weekly COVID-related hospitalization rate stood at 2.2 new patients per 100,000 residents for epidemiological data from March 13-19 — the lowest it’s been since mid-July. It topped out at 34.7 new patients per 100,000 residents in mid January.
“Judging from recent trends in King County and in some other states, we may start to see case increases in the next few weeks, but so far that hasn’t been the case,” Thompson wrote.
The Whatcom County Health Department called the BA.2 “the new COVID-19 variant on the block” in a release Tuesday, March 29, adding that it is believed to be 30% more transmissible than Omicron but does not cause more severe disease.
“Early data shows that vaccines are just as effective against BA.2 as they were against other Omicron strains,” the release reads. “That means that the COVID-19 vaccine is the most effective protection against infection and severe illness.”
The state Department of Health’s weekly SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing and Variants in Washington State report, which was updated Wednesday, does not include any data about BA.2 cases in the state.
