The BA.2 omicron subvariant now accounts for about 30 percent of new cases in New York City, health officials said March 18. Nationwide, the CDC estimates the variant accounts for about 23 percent of new cases.
Cases in the city have also increased in the last few days, officials said during a COVID-19 update, The New York Times reports.
The daily average for new cases in New York City was 905 as of March 17, up 35 percent from an average of less than 700 two weeks ago, data from the Times shows. Cases in the city are still down significantly from omicron's peak in January, when daily average cases surpassed 40,000.
Health officials said they would continue to closely monitor COVID-19 activity to see if New York is on the cusp of experiencing a new wave of cases similar to those in Europe and Asia.
"Community spread remains low," said Ashwin Vasan, MD, the city's health commissioner. "Hospitalizations and deaths are stable or decreasing," he said, adding, "It's essential that New Yorkers go and get boosted when they're eligible."
Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on March 17 said he predicts the U.S. is "going to see a bit of an increase or at least a flattening out and plateauing of the diminution of cases," based on what is unfolding in other parts of the world. "And the question is how do we deal with that," he said.