As the BA.5 Omicron subvariant dominates case numbers across the globe, there are questions and concerns about how people can protect themselves.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the BA.5 subvariant currently accounts for 65 percent of infections across the United States.
Yahoo News reported some experts have called it "the worst variant we have seen so far", because of its high transmission rate and its ability to evade immunity conferred by vaccination or prior infection.
Infectious doctor and professor of medicine at the University of California Dr Monica Gandhi spoke with Yahoo News about the ways people can protect themselves against the subvariant.
Getting boosted
Dr Gandhi said boosters were a great form of protection.
"Those who are older, those who are immunocompromised, those who have multiple medical conditions should be very up-to-date on their boosters because they're more at risk when there's high amounts of circulating virus for their even mild infection to get worse.
"Any booster or any exposure broadens your T-cell immunity. So that's a good thing. That just means that there's no harm in it. Absolutely no harm," Dr Gandhi told Yahoo News.
Although getting a booster as soon as possible will help prevent infection, pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna are working on a new formula expected to be ready by October for a vaccine that is designed to target both the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.
Dr Gandhi said BA.5 has multiple mutations which is why the current vaccines might not be as effective.
"BA.5 looks very different from the ancestral strain, at least in the spike protein. BA.1 [an earlier Omicron subvariant] had 26 to 32 mutations along its spike protein that differed from the ancestral strain, and that BA.5 has even a few more mutations.
"It may be why the booster is not helping us avoid mild infections as well as we'd hoped," she said.
Ventilation
Another key thing to help prevent the spread of the subvariant is ventilation.
Coordinator of the White House's COVID-19 response Ashish Jha said on Tuesday (local time) that having good ventilation indoors can help prevent the spread of the disease.
"We know that improving indoor air quality by improving ventilation, putting in indoor air purifiers, they can make an enormous difference in reducing infections and spread.
"If you are a business or a school or any kind of institution that brings people together indoors, please work to improve the quality of that indoor air," Jha said.
Getting tested
Dr Gandi told Yahoo News getting tested is a key factor in stopping the spread of the virus.
"If you are going to be around someone vulnerable, for example, or if you've been exposed to someone [with COVID-19], get tested."
