Bhanvi Saija and Michael Erman

(Reuters) -Now, approximately one-third of COVID-19 patients in the United States is caused by the BA.2 Omicron virus sub-variant. According to data from the government on Tuesday, overall infections are still falling from January’s record-breaking high.

Experts from the U.S. say it’s unlikely that there will be an epidemic of these highly contagious infections despite their rise in incidence elsewhere.

Although U.S. COVID-19 infection rates have declined sharply in January, there are concerns about resurgences in Europe and Asia that could be a result of previous trends during the last two years.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, Omicron BA.2 accounts for more than half of all cases in the Northeast (New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts).

According to CDC, it was responsible for 35% U.S. infection for the week ended March 19. It compares to the 22.3% reported for week ending March 12. This was revised down from 23.1% according to a CDC model which calculates proportions of circulating variants.

At a Washington Post conference on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that the top U.S. official in infectious diseases said he doesn’t believe there will soon be a significant surge of cases unless “something changes drastically.”

Fauci pointed out that US cases are generally three weeks behind those in Britain. He said, however, that if the United States is to experience an increase, it should be within the next week.

Chief of the division of infectious diseases at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital Daniel Kuritzkes said that there is no evidence to suggest an increase in infections.

Kuritzkes explained that the main concern for people is that, as many restrictions have been relaxed around gathering and masking, it is possible for BA.2 to get a foothold.

According to WHO, this sub-variant has a higher transmission rate than Omicron BA.1 which caused the huge winter surge. The sub-variant does not cause any more severe diseases, but early data shows that BA.1 infections offer strong protection against reinfections with BA.2, WHO stated.

On March 19, U.S.COVID-19 Cases had a seven-day moving mean of 27,747 cases, which was nearly 18% less than a week ago.

According to new CDC guidelines, most of the country has low COVID transmission. These new guidelines emphasize hospital capacity rather than case counts. People are advising that they don’t need to use masks indoors.

WASTEWATER: ‘NO EVIDENCE FOR A WAVE’

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington updated their projection Monday. It does not anticipate a sudden surge of US coronavirus cases over the next few weeks.

Ali Mokdad from the University of Washington tweeted: “But it is possible that there will be a rapid return to the pre COVID-19 behavior, and the spread of Ba2 could witness a short period of increasing number of cases,”

The coronavirus is detected in wastewater samples and has been shown to provide an early indicator of future increases in cases of COVID-19. Sometimes, new infections surges can be identified days ahead of the human test data.

Biobot Analytics is currently monitoring more than 200 sites across the United States.

Mariana Matus, Chief Executive Officer at Biobot Analytics said that there is no evidence of a wave in wastewater data.

Matus stated that, “Just for context,” the virus level in wastewater rose about 100 times faster than it did now during Omicron Wave 1, December.

New York City has begun to drop more mitigation plans. On Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams stated that children aged 2-4 years old will no longer need to wear masks in daycare centers and schools. This change is effective from April 4. COVID is not available to children under 5 years of age.

According to New York City’s Department of Education, the seven-day positivity rates in New York City schools were 0.15% last Wednesday. At the height of last surge, New York City’s 7-day positivity rate all ages was at 21%.

Adams stated that schools were among the most safe places for children ever since the outbreak of the pandemic. Adams also said, “We will remove this requirement only if science shows it safe.”