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New Subvariants Make COVID Decline Unlikely Any Time Soon

June 02, 2022

New research indicates that the latest COVID wave will likely last through the summer, with a spike in the fall, according to the gene sequence sharing site GISAID.

Connecticut’s COVID positivity rate remains high at over 11 percent, according to the latest data from the State Department of Public Health.

“Levels are not going to approach winter levels or last summer’s delta variant levels, but we also will not approach the lows that we would like to see,” said Ulysses Wu, MD, chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare. “We will continue to go through waves of ‘swells’ throughout the early summer at the least, with a likely spike in late fall.”

The next influx of COVID will likely come from Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, viruses that arrived in the United States in late March. They are emerging, research suggests, because they escape immunity created by vaccines and past infections.

Wu said people should continue to wear masks indoors. For the latest COVID positivity rates in Connecticut, click here.