WASHINGTON — The White House confirmed on Saturday that the strain of coronavirus that infected President Biden several days ago is likely to have been BA.5, the highly contagious Omicron subvariant now comprising most new infections in the United States.
“The president’s causative agent is most likely the BA.5 variant,” said a Saturday morning letter from the president’s personal physician, Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor. He added that confirmation, which came from preliminary genetic sequencing, “does not affect the treatment plan in any way.”
BA.5 now accounts for eight out of 10 new coronavirus cases in the United States, and although it does not make people sicker than previous variants, it spreads