A new study shows that many people who tested positive for Covid-19 during the winter did not know they had the coronaviruses.
A person is holding a test.
According to the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Wednesday, the majority of people who were unaware of their Covid had no symptoms at all.
Researchers found that health care workers were more aware of Covid infections.
Susan Cheng is a study author with the Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The omicron variant was first found in South Africa in November of 2021. The surge in cases last winter was caused by the very contagious variant. The variant is able to evade the immune system due to the fact that it has specific alterations in its spike proteins, which help it bind to the human cell. According to previous studies, 25% to 80% of people may not experience any symptoms at all. Studies have shown that people with mild symptoms can cause an outbreak of Covid. Billions of free tests will be sent to households by the federal government in an effort to increase the availability of at- home rapid tests. In June, the FDA recommended that pharmaceutical companies retool coronaviruses booster shots to target the omicron variant. The boosters are expected later in the fall.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, Omicron subvariant BA.5 accounted for 88.8% of all coronaviruses in the U.S. There was a surge in cases after the subvariant made its way to the U.S. After peaking in July, new coronaviruses infections and hospitalizations have begun to fall. The United States averaged 95,206 new infections per day during the week ending August 15th, which is still above the 30,558 daily cases reported as of April 10 but below the 127,740 average new daily cases reported in the week ending July 20.
As Covid Cases Rise, the Highly Contagious BA.5 variant becomes dominant in the U.S.
Live updates on the coronaviruses.
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