OMICRON

Even if you already had Covid, you might get it again this fall or winter. Here's what to know about reinfections — including their severity, and how to prevent them.

Major population areas in Japan have reached about 90% in COVID-19 herd immunity after the recent Omicron wave. However, that level is expected to diminish soon.

University Health will begin offering the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent COVID-19 vaccine starting Tuesday to provide a new layer of protection against the Omicron variant.

Experts say the booster shots are to get ahead of a COVID surge before the end of the year, when more people are indoors.

The pending arrival of an Omicron booster shot marks an ambitious new phase in the nation's vaccination campaign before a possible new COVID surge.

Everyone will probably gain something from the updated vaccines. Here’s how to make the most of it.

Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks about the Omicron coronavirus variant during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, December 1, 2021. The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, plans to step down from his roles running the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and advising the White House as its chief medical advisor at the end of the year, he announced Monday. Fauci has become a household fixture during the Covid-19 pandemic, battling back misinformation, sometimes from the highest levels of government. The 81-year-old has advised seven U.S. presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan through the HIV/AIDS epidemic, West Nile virus, the 2001 anthrax attacks, pandemic influenza, various bird influenza threats, Ebola, Zika and, most recently, Covid and monkeypox. Fauci, who also runs the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, said has no intentions of retiring.

The new booster 'will become available by early to mid-September,' if the FDA and CDC authorize shots, a top White House official said this week.

The primary COVID-19 strain right now is BA.5, an Omicron subvariant present in 88% of current cases -- the most infectious strain yet. KSAT viewers sent in questions asking about how soon you can be reinfected with COVID-19.

Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said he is taking Pfizer's Paxlovid pill and isolating while he recovers.

Quarantining from a sick housemate really is worth the hassle.

Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastThe world has built up a lot of immunity in the nine months since the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus became dominant, driving a record wave of infections.That immunity from vaccines and past infection is helping to keep down hospitalizations and deaths even as Omicron’s offspring—a succession of subvariants—have become dominant, one after one.Now the virus is trying to find a way around our antibodies. A new subvariant, BA.4.6, is begin

The conventional wisdom is that Omicron is less likely to cause serious illness, but that might have more to do with better immunity and treatments, not the virus itself.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/GettyA wave of COVID infections caused by the BA.5 subvariant has crested. All over the world, daily new cases, hospitalizations and deaths are going down.But the SARS-CoV-2 virus is almost certainly here to stay. Another wave is all but inevitable as new variants and subvariants mutate, compete for dominance and find new transmission pathways.How fast that wave comes, and how bad it gets, probably comes down to a genetic competition between different mutati

U.S. regulators say they are no longer considering authorizing second COVID-19 booster shots for all adults under 50 this summer.

No one knows exactly what this will look like—only that it’s guaranteed to keep happening.

With new COVID-19 boosters expected later this year, health experts urge Californians not to put off a first or second booster shot until then.

The Omicron subvariant BA.4 & BA.5 are circulating the community. Doctors say there's limited information on these variants so far.

The BA.5 subvariant of Omicron is reinfecting at record clip. We asked public-health experts to rate how concerned we should be about this COVID wave.

Top U.S. health officials warned Tuesday that an expected surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.5 has arrived, but that the country has the tools to deal with it.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant "substantially evades" antibodies from both vaccination and prior COVID-19 infection.

Compared to its ancestors, the latest Omicron subvariant, BA.5, may have an enhanced ability to create a large number of copies of the coronavirus once it gets into human cells.

A subvariant of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, BA.5, is now the dominant strain in the U.S., and its infection rates are even more harsh.

Scientists say the new variant — named BA.2.75 — appears to spread rapidly and may be able to get around immunity from vaccines and prior infection.

Omicron subvariant BA.5 is responsible for more than half of all new cases in the country, according to the CDC.

Viruses evolve, and vaccines should too. That was the big-picture takeaway from a pivotal meeting this week of the FDA’s expert advisory panel. The question before them was simple: Ahead of an expected winter surge, should vaccine manufacturers tweak their forthcoming booster shots to target Omicron, or should they stick with the tried-and-true 2020 recipe?

Advisers to the U.S. government are recommending that COVID-19 booster shots used this fall be modified to better match more recent variants of the coronavirus.

Pfizer's Omicron-only booster sparked the strongest immune response against that variant.

“Jurassic World: Dominion” dominated at the box office over Father’s Day weekend, beating out Disney’s “Toy Story” spinoff “Lightyear.” Meanwhile, "Top Gun: Maverick" is expected to earn $1 billion by July 4.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyCOVID-19 cases are increasing again in the United Kingdom, potentially signaling a future surge in infections in the United States and other countries.A pair of new subvariants of the dominant Omicron variant—BA.4 and BA.5—appear to be driving the uptick in cases in the U.K. Worryingly, these subvariants seem to partially dodge antibodies from past infection or vaccination, making them more transmissible than other forms of the SARS-CoV-

DOT Secretary met virtually with airline CEOs on Thursday after several waves of flight delays and cancellations.

Some scientists estimate that cases of long COVID from omicron will still rise, however, because of high transmissibility and the misconception that people don't have to worry about catching it.

People who had only two initial doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine fared no better against Omicron than those who were unvaccinated, new study finds.

The FDA's vaccine advisers meet later this month to weigh updating booster shots.

COVID-19 vaccine makers are studying updated boosters that might be offered in the fall to better protect people against future coronavirus surges.

The "bivalent" vaccine — meaning it targets two different antigens — is Moderna's leading candidate to have an effective booster ready for fall of 2022, the company said.

In the winter, COVID cases shot up and plummeted with unprecedented speed. But this surge is dragging on and on in some parts of the country.

Delta said it expects revenue to get back to 2019 levels this quarter.

Our original-recipe vaccines are still doing well against new variants. But we may need to improve them, and soon.

A US judge says the policy that allows migrants to be expelled over Covid fears must stay in place.

Bexar County COVID-19 cases are trending upwards again, though hospitalizations are staying relatively steady.

The CDC must decide whether to formally recommend the booster for this age group.

For more than a year now, the original COVID-19 vaccines have held up remarkably well — even miraculously so — against a Greek alphabet of new variants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta. But now experts say something is changing. Since the start of 2022, the initial version of Omicron, known as BA.1, has been spinning off new sublineages — BA.2, BA.2.12.1, BA.4, BA.5 — at an alarming pace.

Unvaccinated people who got Covid last winter have little protection from reinfection, and even vaccinated people might be vulnerable after only a few months.

South Africa's new cases have gone from an average of 300 per day in early April to about 8,000 per day in mid-May.

North Korea's leader blames the outbreak on bureaucratic and medical incompetence.

The U.S. will have to decide soon whether to bet big on an Omicron vaccine.

State media report the country's first outbreak, but observers believe the virus has long been present.

In the wake of the Omicron variant wave over the winter, more than half of Americans are estimated to have antibodies from a previous infection.

In the wake of the Omicron variant wave over the winter, more than half of Americans are estimated to have antibodies from a previous infection.

The following is a transcript of an interview with Dr. Scott Gottlieb that aired Sunday, April 24, 2022, on "Face the Nation."

Moderna's goal is to produce a combination shot that specifically targets Omicron.

Pfizer tested the kid booster while Omicron was surging this winter.

Citing a "robust response" of antibodies against Omicron in their vaccine trials, the companies said they were planning to submit a request "in the coming days."

Texas Biomedical Research Institute is researching and developing variant-specific treatments to help in the fight against COVID-19.

The stock market is losing crucial support from the Federal Reserve.

Teachers are trying to make up for a lag in learning over the past two years because of COVID-19 shutdowns and quarantines.

Community Labs is scrambling to catch up on a backlog of COVID tests as the demand for testing has doubled compared to previous months.

With new COVID variants and constant recommendation updates, it can be tough to wade through the information, so our KSAT Trust Index team is doing your fact checking for you.

Just last week, we asked: If you’re a health care worker, what are you seeing lately on the job?

As the highly contagious Omicron variant sweeps through the population, testing sites have been bombarded, resulting in some issues and delays for testing companies.

As the raging omicron variant of COVID-19 infects workers across the nation, millions of those whose jobs don’t provide paid sick days are having to choose between their health and their paycheck.

Omicron COVID-19 cases are booming, not just in Bexar County, but in other rural counties surrounding San Antonio.

University Health’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Bryan Alsip, answered some of the most-asked questions about COVID-19 and the new omicron variant, which now accounts for a majority of new cases.

Look, life as we know it right now is pretty insane. Omicron is raging across the country, it didn’t even feel like 2021 happened and America’s sweetheart, Betty White, is dead.

President Joe Biden is urging concern but not alarm as the United States set records for daily reported COVID-19 cases and his administration struggles to ease concerns about testing shortages.

New COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Bexar County this week, with more than 4,300 new cases reported on Tuesday.

Why are so many vaccinated people getting COVID-19 lately.

COVID hospitalizations in Bexar County have increased by more than 75% from just one week ago.

It's been a rollercoaster of a year, and 2021 is ending like it began — with COVID-19 cases on the rise.

With the number of COVID cases in children on the rise, local pediatricians are encouraging parents to vaccinate their children.

We might not be able to claim that 2021 was *the* wildest year in recent history (2020 will likely get that credit for quite some time), but it might be a close second.

Greece’s health minister says music will be banned at all commercial venues for New Year’s celebrations as part of new restrictions announced in response to a surge in COVID-19 infections fueled by the omicron variant.

Cases of Omicron are outpacing previous variants of concern like Delta across Texas.

The latest COVID-19 variant is upending holiday plans for tens of thousands of travelers — but it didn’t do much damage to holiday shopping.

President Joe Biden is announcing plans to deliver 500 million free COVID-19 tests to Americans, increase support for hospitals and expand the availability of vaccines to confront a winter surge of coronavirus cases driven by the fast-spreading omicron variant.

As Omicron cases are surging nationally, local doctors are advising what to look for and if we should cancel holiday plans.

Omicron has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S. Federal health officials said Monday that omicron accounted for an estimated 73% of new infections last week.

The new omicron variant took only a few weeks to live up to dire predictions about how hugely contagious it is.

The European Union’s top official says omicron is expected to be the dominant coronavirus variant in the 27-nation bloc by mid-January.

British Health Secretary Sajid Javid says the omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading so rapidly that it has the potential to overwhelm Britain’s hospitals.

Doctors at the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio are identifying COVID variants by genome testing.

To protect yourself against the omicron variant, experts say to do what you would against any other variant.

University Health first began sending positive COVID-19 tests for sequencing in March. So far, the omicron variant has not been detected.

Although there’s still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the new Omicron COVID-19 variant, health officials say that early data indicates the mRNA vaccines are still proving to be effective.

A push for COVID-19 vaccinations continues as the holidays approach and concerns over the Omicron variant heighten.

While all eyes are on the new and little-understood omicron variant, the delta form of the coronavirus isn’t finished wreaking havoc in the U.S., sending record numbers of patients to the hospital in some states, especially in the Midwest and New England.

California is reporting its second confirmed case of the omicron COVID variant in as many days.

Scientists say it could be weeks before they better understand how dangerous the omicron variant is.

Britain says it will offer all adults a booster dose of vaccine within two months to bolster the nation’s immunity as the new omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads.

With the emergence of a new COVID variant, experts say not to panic because we have tools to protect against it.

President Joe Biden is urging Americans to get vaccinated, including booster shots, as he seeks to quell concerns over the newly identified coronavirus variant named omicron.