Here's the latest variant picture for BA.2 (Omicron). Globally it is far less common than it's sibling BA.1 lineage. BA.2 has many unique mutations.
The frequency of BA.2 is rising in several countries, on similar trajectories.
(Linear then log scales)
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I'm now presenting these charts with both a linear Y-axis scale, together with a version using a log scale. A log axis helps compare growth rates.
The Frequency is calculated for each country independently, comparing to all the recent samples sequenced in that country.
Here are the other top countries in Europe, by BA.2 samples.
Although their frequencies are lower so far, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands appear to be on a similar trajectory.
Here's a full variant picture for India. IMO the recent results for BA.2 need to be considered in the context that:
- recent sample sizes are very low (grey column chart)
- possible founder effects - relatively late start to their Omicron outbreak.
Here are the Indian states reporting the most BA.2 samples.
Note the recent steep rises in frequency have been dominated by Gujarat and Telangaina, so the recent national picture for India might only be representative of a few cities.
In Denmark, it seems that BA.2 has been out-competing BA.1 for some weeks now.
There are some anecdotal reports of re-infections of BA.2, especially among those relying on natural immunity from Delta or BA.1.
Similarly, the picture for Singapore shows BA.2 apparently out-competing BA.1.
In the UK, the three largest countries recently show BA.2 on a similar very steep trajectory.
Here’s the July 2025 update I just sent to my GitHub Sponsors.
I continued to share results from these projects, here and on other social media platforms
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If you are in a position to support my open-source project work, then any amount is welcome. You just need to create a free GitHub account, and you can remain anonymous if you prefer.
There’s info on that page about how your contribution will be used.
This perspective excludes all the high-volume countries and regions that I routinely report on: Australia, NZ, Europe, Canada and the US. The remaining countries are aggregated into this report.
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Here are the leading countries reporting the NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" variant.
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Here's the latest variant picture for the United States, to early July.
The XFG.* "Stratus" variant continued it’s dominance, growing to 58% frequency.
NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" was fairly flat, finishing at 14%.
#COVID19 #USA #XFG #Stratus #NB_1_8_1 #Nimbus
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Here are the leading US states reporting XFG.* "Stratus". New York state reported strong growth to 78%.
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Here are the leading US states reporting NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus". Besides the International Traveller samples, it has been most common in California and Colorado, although all are roughly flat or declining lately.
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The volatility is due to the ragged timing of submissions from various countries.
This perspective excludes all the high-volume countries and regions that I routinely report on: Australia, NZ, Europe, Canada and the US. The remaining countries are aggregated into this report.
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Here are the leading countries reporting the NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" variant.
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Here's the latest variant picture for the United States, to late June.
The XFG.* "Stratus" variant grew to dominant at 40%, with LP.8.1.* at 28%.
Growth of the NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" variant is slower, at 16%.
#COVID19 #USA #XFG #Stratus #NB_1_8_1 #Nimbus
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For the US, the XFG.* "Stratus" variant shows a strong growth advantage of 5% per day (35% per week) over LP.8.1.*, with a crossover in mid-June.
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Here are the leading US states reporting XFG.* "Stratus". New York state leads at 59%. It has also been quite common among the International Traveller samples at 46%.
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Here are the trends across all the International Traveller samples. From that perspective, XFG.* "Stratus" is dominant at 48%.
This dataset (mostly arrivals in the US and Japan) is arguably more random, as it is not skewed by sequencing volumes.
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Globally, the NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" variant is showing a steady growth advantage of 3.1% per day (22% per week) over the LP.8.1.* variant, with a crossover in late May.
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