Health workers administer COVID-19 vaccine shots to local residents in Los Angeles, the United States, December 17, 2022. /Xinhua
New Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is estimated to account for 40.5 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States in the week ending December 31 of 2022, nearly doubling from the previous week, according to data updated Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
XBB.1.5 made up 21.7 percent of the total cases in the previous week ending December 24, 2022.
Recombinants of the BA.2 variant, XBB and XBB.1.5 together accounted for 44.1 percent of the total cases in the country in the week ending December 31, 2022, CDC data showed.
The XBB variant has been driving up cases in parts of Asia, drawing concerns for its high infectiousness.