(Reuters) – The Omicron subvariant, XBB.1.5, is estimated to account for 27.6% of COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week ending Jan. 7, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed on Friday.
The CDC revised its estimate for the week ended Dec. 31 to say XBB.1.5 made up 18.3% of cases, not about 40% of cases.
The agency did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking details about the change in estimated data.
The World Health Organization’s senior epidemiologist, Maria Van Kerkhove, earlier this week said XBB.1.5 is the most transmissible Omicron sub-variant that has been detected so far.
(Reporting by Leroy Leo and Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
