tests 90 percent less
Another Covid subvariant called EG.5 has already put some people in the US on high alert
Pharmacy chains CVS CVS.N, Walgreens WBA.N and Rite Aid RAD.N told Reuters that sales of on-site molecular testing and home tests have increased in recent weeks.
How much surveillance is needed to track the virus remains an open question, health experts said, and the countries that have detected the new variant all have strong genomic sequencing capabilities. According to WHO data, by December 2022, Sars-CoV-2 could be sequenced in 84 percent of countries.
But the data submitted to the international database, GISAID, has declined dramatically. In Omicron’s first week, more than 200,000 coronavirus sequences were submitted. Last week it was around 20,000.
“When we do sequencing now, it is like (finding) a needle in a haystack,” said Tyra Grove Krause, a Danish epidemiologist at the Statens Serum Institute, which identified the three BA.2.86 cases.