An omicron subvariant that's only accounted for a sprinkle of COVID-19 infections has been detected in 26 states and Washington, D.C., according to tracking estimates.
BA.2.75 accounted for 84 national COVID-19 across 20 states as of Aug. 8, but that number has creeped up to 189 as of Aug. 22. The estimates come from a dashboard run by Raj Rajnarayanan, PhD, the assistant dean of research and an associate professor at Arkansas State University. The dashboard uses GISAID, a global data platform that follows viruses.
The number of BA.2.75 cases are too few to be published by the CDC as BA.5 makes up nearly 9 in every 10 national cases. Two other omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.4.6, together account for about 1 in every 10.
Health experts have said BA.2.75 is a "scariant" and the WHO has not deemed it a variant of concern. Helix, a lab that helps the CDC track variants, recently said BA.2.75 infections were "sporadic."
Here are the most recent estimates on BA.2.75 infections by state and Washington, D.C.:
California — 34
New Jersey — 26
New York — 19
Washington — 17
Texas — 13
Illinois — 11
Arizona — 8
Ohio — 7
North Carolina — 7
Georgia — 7
Wisconsin — 5
Virginia — 5
Pennsylvania — 4
Nebraska — 3
Massachusetts — 3
Maryland — 3
Indiana — 3
Minnesota — 2
Michigan — 2
Kansas — 2
Iowa — 2
Missouri — 1
Hawaii — 1
District of Columbia — 1
Delaware — 1
Connecticut — 1
Colorado — 1