Experts rue simple steps not taken before latest COVID-19 surge in U.S.: AP

Pedestrians pass a sign advertising a COVID-19 testing site in New York, the United States, on May 12, 2022. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

Global trends for the two mutants have been apparent for weeks, experts said. They quickly out-compete older variants and push cases higher wherever they appear.

NEW YORK, July 15 (Xinhua) -- With new Omicron variants again driving COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths higher in recent weeks in the United States, states and cities are rethinking their responses and the White House is stepping up efforts to alert the public, but some experts said the warnings are too little and too late, reported The Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday.

"It's well past the time when the warning could have been put out there," Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, who has has called BA.5 "the worst variant yet," was quoted as saying.

The highly transmissible BA.5 variant now accounts for 65 percent of cases with its cousin BA.4 contributing another 16 percent. The variants have shown a remarkable ability to get around the protection offered by infection and vaccination, according to the report.

Global trends for the two mutants have been apparent for weeks, experts said. They quickly out-compete older variants and push cases higher wherever they appear. "Yet Americans have tossed off their masks and jumped back into travel and social gatherings," said the report.

"And they have largely ignored booster shots, which protect against COVID-19's worst outcomes. Courts have blocked federal mask and vaccine mandates, tying the hands of U.S. officials," it added.