Undercounted COVID-19 cases leave U.S. with blind spot as BA.5 variant becomes dominant: CNN

NEW YORK, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Official COVID-19 case metrics severely undercount the true number of infections, leaving the United States with a critical blind spot as the most transmissible coronavirus variant yet takes hold, reported CNN on Monday.

The Omicron offshoot BA.5 became the dominant variant in the United States last week, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and "the subvariant carries key mutations that help it escape antibodies generated by vaccines and prior infection, aiding its rapid spread," said the report.

With that will come "escalating numbers of cases and more hospitalizations," Eric Topol, a cardiologist and professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, was quoted as saying. "One good thing is it doesn't appear to be accompanied by the ICU admissions and the deaths as previous variants, but this is definitely concerning."

COVID-19 cases have been undercounted to some degree throughout the pandemic for reasons including a lack of available tests at some points and asymptomatic cases that may have been missed, according to the report.

However, as people increasingly rely on rapid at-home tests - and as attitudes toward the pandemic shift overall - the United States hasn't landed on a reliable way to track transmission levels, it added.