Omicron BA.2 in Connecticut
This is hot off the presses:
I believe what it means is that by means of a fast examination they have determined that their tests show that the original Omicron BA1 in the last couple of days accounts for 85 percent of test results (I believe Dr. Grubaugh test every outpatient in the Yale New Haven system with this method). Until quite recently the original Omicron BA1 was 95 percent of tests. This test can't distinguish between the Delta variant and the BA2 Omicron variant. So the 15 percent could be either, but I'll guess the majority was BA2 (Delta had been hanging around at 5 percent for all of January in CT).
The sequencing which can distinguish between delta and BA2 lags the quick test by a couple of weeks but did show a BA2 case from Jan. 8.
The good news is that despite what is presumed to be an increase in BA2 Connecticut covid cases are still dropping quite rapidly.
I'll continue to watch.