While the BA.5 COVID variant was the nation's dominant strain for months, that's not the case any longer.
Subvariants BQ.1.1 and BQ.1 have since taken over, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, which showed the two account for approximately 44% of new COVID infections, NBC News reported. BA.5 was responsible for approximately 30% of all cases, according to the most recent data.
They aren't the only variants to surface recently, however.
BN.1 appeared on radars this week and has since been added to the CDC's weekly tracker. It made up approximately 5.1% of cases in the U.S. and 4.9% cases in the Midwest from the week starting Nov. 13.
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Officials say that the new strain is most prevalent in the Southeast, making up more than 7.5% of cases in an area that includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The news comes as cases begin to slowly trend upward as northern residents begin to spend more time indoors. According to the latest CDC estimates from Nov. 16, 280,771 new COVID cases per week were reported in the U.S., a slight decrease from the 289,884 reported a week earlier.
In Illinois, cases have largely flattened in recent weeks after an increase in October, but officials remain concerned that cases could rise with more residents spending time indoors and around loved ones during the holiday season.
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As of Friday, Illinois was averaging 1,951 new cases of COVID per day.
"When we see a lot of subvariants emerging, we also know that means there is more COVID spread generally," Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, previously said. "Because when COVID spreads, that is when it has the opportunity to mutate, and that's when you see new subvariants emerge."
Still, Arwady noted that it is good news all of the subvariants so far are descendants from omicron.
"My biggest worry is if we get a new variant of concern emerging, meaning a variant that is behaving really differently that is genetically very different from omicron, that has more immune escape, that is making more people more seriously ill, especially and even if they're up to date with vaccine, or some other, you know, some other change," she said.
The fact that subvariants remain under the omicron umbrella has so far led experts to believe the new bivalent booster, which was specifically designed to target the omicron variant and the BA.5 subvariant, will continue to provide protection.
"If there are people getting breakthroughs, you know, they're not likely to get seriously ill, hospitalized any of that," Arwady said. "But we do continue to see some breakthroughs. We will be collecting information. You know, this is the sort of thing you have to study in real time... getting the boosters is protective. It's not 100% protective, but it is protective also against infection."
