In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 had become dominant in the US July 5 to say that BA.5 accounted for more than half of the new cases in the country.
Experts said these subvariants are generally not markedly different symptoms of earlier versions of Omicron† People infected with BA.4 and BA.5 may develop cough, runny nose, sore throat, fatigue, headache and muscle aches. However, they are less likely to lose their senses of taste and smell, or become short of breath, compared to those infected with Delta or other variants of the coronavirus, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonologist and critical care physician at Cleveland Clinic, said people tend to experience upper respiratory symptoms “from the vocal cords to the tip of the nose.” Anecdotally, he said, he has seen more patients with painful sinus congestion and severe sore throat who tested positive for Covid-19 while BA.4 and BA.5 were in circulation. Some of them thought they had strep throat because they were in so much pain, he said.
There is also no evidence yet to indicate that these subvariants cause more serious disease than previous versions of Omicron. But BA.4 and BA.5 are more contagious, meaning as more people become infected, hospitalization rates for both adults and children increase, says Dr. Adam Ratner, director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone. . †