Omicron subvariant: NYC officials recommend masking indoors due to rising COVID cases

Yahoo Finance health care reporter Anjalee Khemlani discusses NYC's new mask guidance as the city faces a COVID case surge and how the BA.5 variant now accounts for a majority of all new cases.

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RACHELLE AKUFFO: Well, COVID cases in New York City are surging, with officials now back to recommending masks indoors. Our very own health reporter Anjalee Khemlani is following the story. Anjalee, what do we need to know?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Well, Rachelle, what this is, is basically a strong recommendation from New York City's health department. This is the second time that we've seen this recommendation in the past three months, and that is a result of the latest Omicron subvariant BA.5 taking hold.

We've seen, really, across the country some indications that we might be experiencing what could be a new wave. What's at play here, as you can see on your screen, is this new highly transmissible subvariant. It's got a few different symptoms from the original and earlier strains, so it's harder to say specifically if someone has it, and it's harder to track these cases as a result of more in-home testing and at-home tests.

So that's really where a lot of this is coming from. Right now, the CDC estimates that BA.5 makes up 54% of cases, but a lot of experts say that number could well be higher, again, as a result of those at-home tests. Now, what we have is New York City really serving as a bellwether for the rest of the country, as it has been throughout this pandemic.

And the CDC has been keeping track of two different metrics that might seem confusing, but let's take a look at them. On one hand, you have the level of transmission, and that is a different number than, really, the COVID levels that are being tracked. COVID levels also incorporate the increase in cases and increase in hospitalizations as well.

And that's a key metric to keep in mind. Because the New York City health commissioner previously said that if hospital rates triggered it, that's when the city could really go back into a mask mandate mode. And so that's where we have to keep our eyes for right now. But as it stands, really, just a lot of focus on this case rise right now.

- It's amazing. On Broadway, the mask mandate just came off. People just got to return to plays, and now, we're talking about it going back on-- all five New York City boroughs back in the CDC high-risk category. Cases overall in the country are still high, but hospitalizations and death-- where are they?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: So hospitalizations are-- they have seen some uptick, but not enough, again, to that point of, it's not at a concerning level. And so that's why we haven't seen that trigger of the alert for the city get to high. It's now at medium. It was high in June, and then by the end, got to medium.

So we are seeing that those some waves come with those subvariants, you know. Like you can see on your screen, we're talking about that difference between what the old guidelines would show, which was just tracking cases alone, and then now, these newer guidelines incorporating all of these other tactics and other strategies and metrics. And that's something that experts have been pretty critical of.

The Scripps Research Translational Institute's Eric Topol has been especially aggressive about calling out the CDC for basically hiding that other map. Within the data tracking that they have, it's harder to find-- and also the fact that they're not paying as much attention to those metrics nowadays.

Because we haven't really heard anything from the CDC, right? Unless you're tracking it like we are, you don't really know that this is happening.

- You can see the COVID fatigue on my face. I took three tests and still had to wear a mask on a film set earlier this week, and we're just not ready to go back. Some Los Angeles news affiliates are reporting the possibility of masks coming back on as well. Anjalee, best of luck. Have a good weekend.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: You, yoo.

- Let's avoid it.