You may be wondering why cases have been on the rise recently, especially as we see an increase in vaccination across the state. There are two answers to this question – variants that are more transmissible and increased social gatherings without face coverings. 

Sequencing of COVID-19 variants allows scientists to monitor how the COVID-19 virus changes over time into new variants, and to understand how these changes affect characteristics of the virus such as how easily the virus spreads or how many severe infections it causes. They use this information to predict and to measure how these changes might affect the spread of COVID-19. 

Read more about variants on the OHA blog.