What to Know About the New BA.2.12.1 COVID-19 Subvariant Before Your Next Disney Trip

The situation with COVID-19 continues to change and develop. This post is no longer being updated. For the latest information, click here.

Post last updated August 24th, 2022.

The situation with COVID-19 is ever-evolving.

From changing mask rules to COVID-19 subvariants and the end of the “full-blown pandemic phase” things are changing constantly. Another COVID-19 variant — BA.2.12.1 hit the scene previously. It’s one you may have already heard about in the news. So just what is this variant, what signs should you look for, and what impact could it have on your trip? Here’s what we know so far.

What is BA.2.12.1?

Over the past years, the virus that causes COVID-19 has mutated and changed. For a while, we shared a lot about the Delta variant and then the Omicron variant. Following that, BA.2 or “stealth Omicron,” as it was originally called, became a hot topic. BA.2 is a subvariant of Omicron.

BA.2 was the dominant subvariant of Omicron in the U.S. (US News & World Report), but then a new Omicron subvariant hit the scene and rapidly grew in the U.S. (for a time).

BA.2.12.1 is a “highly transmissible” subvariant of COVID-19, according to US News & World Report. On May 3rd, 2022, US News & World Report shared that this particular subvariant was actually responsible for more than 1/3 of COVID-19 cases during the previous week.

As of data reviewed at the end of July 2022, however, things have changed. BA.2.12.1 now only makes up around 5% of cases, while newer variants — BA.4 and BA.5 make up greater numbers.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky indicated that BA.2.12.1 could be 25% more transmissible than BA.2. (US News & World Report)

Director Walensky has said, “Additional evaluation is currently underway to understand the impact of BA.2.12.1 on vaccine effectiveness…But importantly, 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.” (US News & World Report)

Cases and hospitalizations have increased in the U.S. when it comes to COVID-19, according to Deadline, though some numbers have gone down in certain places. As of early/mid-May, Florida COVID-19 hospitalizations were on the rise. As of late July, hospitalizations in Florida were just slightly up, but case numbers were slightly down and deaths were at about the same level.

Still, in terms of overall case numbers in the U.S., charts from The New York Times show that the daily average on July 31st, 2022 was 123,533. On May 31st, 2022 that number was 98,688.

And compared to the daily average of 32,220 on April 11th, 2022, this is a large increase, though still less than some other numbers seen earlier in the year.

Severity & Symptoms

In terms of severity, the World Health Organization previously shared that the evidence currently doesn’t suggest that there are differences in terms of “severity or clinical manifestations” when it comes to BA.2.12.1 versus BA.2. (US News & World Report)

NBC Chicago echos this by noting that “While the new subvariant is reported to be more transmissible, there’s no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe disease.”

According to the Palm Beach Post, Florida International University epidemiologist Dr. Mary Jo Trepka has said, “In terms of severity, it doesn’t seem like we’re experiencing what we did with delta or omicron.”

Overall, symptoms of COVID-19, in general, include fever or chills, cough, muscle or body aches, sore throat, new loss of taste or smell, and others. NBC Chicago shares that “It remains unclear if certain symptoms are associated with BA.2.12.1 infections.”

What Next?

As Deadline puts it “the freight train hasn’t stopped with BA.2.12.1.” In early May, they shared that the first 2 cases of newer variants were discovered in the U.S.

But, according to NBC Chicago, “Experts generally agree that the public shouldn’t worry too much about the emergence of each omicron subvariant.”

David Montefiori, who is a professor at the Human Vaccine Institute at Duke University Medical Center, has said: “At some point, you just can’t get nervous every time there’s a new variant, because there’s always going to be a new variant…We’ve been through multiple waves of variants that really mattered a lot, but we might be coming out of that because there’s so much immunity built up in the population.” (NBC Chicago)

However, Reuters does note that reinfections and more severe outcomes may be more common with the BA.5 subvariant.

How is Florida Being Impacted?

In Florida, COVID-19 cases have gone up, though they recently went down a bit.

In early May of 2022, the Palm Beach Post shared that health officials in Florida “logged the biggest increase in new cases since late February.”

As of May 10th, 2022, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida have been increasing. Again, as we noted above, as of late July 2022, case numbers have dropped a bit in Florida, hospitalizations have slightly increased, and deaths have remained at about the same level.