--- title: What to Know About the New BA.2.12.1 Variant in the U.S. description: BA.2.12.1, a new variant related to Omicron, is making up an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. canonical: https://time.com/6174005/ba-2-12-1-variant-covid-19/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-05-05T20:03:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:35:17.430Z article:section: Health og:title: What to Know About BA.2.12.1, a New Variant Spreading in the U.S. og:description: It's related to Omicron og:url: https://time.com/6174005/ba-2-12-1-variant-covid-19/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf86290194fbdeb22/698a31974ee262c50131a2a6/covid-cases-rising.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: New York City Reports Uptick In Covid Cases og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About BA.2.12.1, a New Variant Spreading in the U.S. twitter:description: It's related to Omicron twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf86290194fbdeb22/698a31974ee262c50131a2a6/covid-cases-rising.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About BA.2.12.1, the New Variant Spreading in the U.S. > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a77b70f3-338e-41e6-8bf4-cf70f56b5ea9&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Difference Between a Covid Spike and a Surge [Watch (HLS stream): The Difference Between a Covid Spike and a Surge](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j83pb4lv.m3u8) (2:25)  _Published 2022-04-05. BA.2.12.1, a new variant related to Omicron, is making up an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. May 5, 2022 8:03 PM UTC  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. May 5, 2022 8:03 PM UTC It’s only been about six months since the Omicron variant emerged and changed the landscape of the pandemic, sending case-counts soaring and [causing breakthrough infections](https://time.com/6130704/breakthrough-infections-omicron/) even among those who were fully vaccinated and boosted. The virus continues to keep scientists guessing, mutating into subvariants almost as fast as researchers can assign them names. First there was BA.2, which [became dominant in the U.S. earlier this spring](https://time.com/6160259/ba2-covid-19-surge/). Now, another Omicron descendent known as BA.2.12.1 is accounting for a growing share of U.S. cases—about 36% of samples sequenced during the week ending April 30, [according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions) (CDC). Overall, average daily diagnoses have roughly doubled nationwide since early April. Two other Omicron spinoffs, known as BA.4 and BA.5, are also currently spreading in South Africa, [where they were first identified](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/15/who-tracks-omicron-bapoint4-and-bapoint5-subvariants-as-they-spread-through-africa-and-europe.html), and have been detected in other countries around the world. It always takes time to learn how significant the emergence of new variants will be. Early data suggest the new Omicron relatives spread faster than BA.2, but they do not seem to cause more severe disease, the World Health Organization wrote in [a report published April 27](https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---27-april-2022). CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky recently gave [a similarly reassuring message to reporters](https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-05-03/cdc-new-omicron-subvariant-b-2-12-1-responsible-for-a-third-of-new-coronavirus-cases), saying that—though more research is needed—“we continue to believe that those who are vaccinated, and especially those who are boosted, continue to have strong protection against severe disease, even from BA.2.12.1.” However, a pair of preliminary, not-yet-peer-reviewed studies—[one from China](https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1611421/v1%5Fcovered.pdf?c=1651516226) and [one from South Africa](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.29.22274477v1)—suggest these newer Omicron subvariants are better than earlier strains at evading the [immunity offered by vaccines and prior infections](https://time.com/6171943/how-long-does-covid-immunity-last/). That means even people who caught the original Omicron strain could be at risk of reinfection—but, as former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb [tweeted yesterday](https://twitter.com/ScottGottliebMD/status/1521867804521103360), those who are fully vaccinated _and_ recently had COVID-19 seem to have stronger protection. It’s not surprising that the virus continues to mutate; scientists have long predicted that would be the case. But as BA.2.12.1 works its way around the U.S., it should be a reminder that the pandemic is full of twists and turns. Everything we know about the virus and immunity to it can change. All it takes is a new variant. ## Transcript Spike, surge and uptick are used fairly interchangeably. I think many people in healthcare would view a surge as something that has the potential to overwhelm the healthcare system or threaten the capacity of hospitals in a given area. Whereas an uptick, or an increase, or spike in cases is usually used a little bit more casually just to suggest that case counts are rising. The ways that the U.S. has been predicting when a spike is coming, one of them is just looking to other parts of the world. Europe and particularly the U.K., has been a good predictor for the U.S. throughout the pandemic, they started to see Delta cases and Omicron cases rising a few weeks before we did. So, looking at what's going on in other countries is very valuable, as is looking at metrics like testing. If more cases are being reported and if a higher percentage of tests are coming back positive, those are both indications that there's more virus spreading in the community. Scientists and researchers all over the world are monitoring COVID, of course. Particularly looking for new variants as the virus continues to evolve. And a lot of those efforts are coordinated through the World Health Organization. But also, independent labs are scientists who are sequencing COVID samples to look for new variants, will often sound the alarm for the rest of the world when they start to notice either the viruses evolving or that a certain variant is spreading more rapidly in certain area. For example, before the Omicron surge, that news came out of South Africa originally and that kind of let the rest of the world know that they needed to be aware this variant was coming. During a spike in cases, I think we can keep doing the things that health experts have really been recommending for the last couple years. A lot of vaccine and mask mandates have rolled back recently but that doesn't mean that masking and vaccination are not still effective or still necessary in certain situations. So if case levels are rising, or very high in your area, you might want to wear protective masks like a N95. When you go out into indoor areas in public, you might want to limit the time that you spend in public indoor areas. You should stay up to date on booster shots as they're recommended for different demographics. And you can take advantage of that home tests to test yourself before you gather with others to make sure that you're not unknowingly infected with the virus. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6174005/ba-2-12-1-variant-covid-19/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6174005/ba-2-12-1-variant-covid-19/"},"headline":"What to Know About BA.2.12.1, the New Variant Spreading in the U.S.","datePublished":"2022-05-05T20:03:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T09:35:17.430Z","description":"BA.2.12.1, a new variant related to Omicron, is making up an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S.","url":"https://time.com/6174005/ba-2-12-1-variant-covid-19/","keywords":["COVID-19","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf86290194fbdeb22/698a31974ee262c50131a2a6/covid-cases-rising.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf86290194fbdeb22/698a31974ee262c50131a2a6/covid-cases-rising.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"New York City Reports Uptick In Covid Cases","caption":"New York City Reports Uptick In Covid Cases","creditText":"Spencer Platt—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6174005/ba-2-12-1-variant-covid-19/","name":"What to Know About BA.2.12.1, the New Variant Spreading in the U.S."}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Difference Between a Covid Spike and a Surge","description":"BA.2.12.1, a new variant related to Omicron, is making up an increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/j83pb4lv/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2022-04-05T19:58:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j83pb4lv.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6174005/ba-2-12-1-variant-covid-19/","duration":"PT2M25S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6174005/ba-2-12-1-variant-covid-19/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```