Everything you need to know about the latest subvariant

Nearly every month it seems there’s a new COVID variant (or subvariant) for us to deal with — and a new alphabet soup name to learn. The latest? BA.2.12.1.

My colleague Kay Lazar reported that the strain now accounts for at least 40 percent of New England cases and has an increased capacity to evade antibodies triggered by a previous Omicron infection and vaccination. Alongside a spike in cases, hospitalizations are rising slowly. 

The virus is not mutating faster now than when the pandemic began in 2020. But people’s behavior has changed so drastically that recent variants have had more opportunity to gain traction, said Dr. Jeremy Luban of the UMass Chan Medical School. “It may have a lot more to do with the fact that people were locked down with Alpha and now people are flying all over the planet.” 

We can expect that BA.4 and BA.5 will take over soon, too. The newest offshoots identified by scientists in South Africa have already been pinpointed in 17 states, including Massachusetts.