Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday it had identified the first two cases of the BA.2 variant of COVID-19 in Maine.

BA.2 is a sublineage of the omicron variant.

Maine CDC Director Dr. Shah says early data suggests it’s more contagious than omicron, but the difference in transmissibility may be smaller than the difference between the delta variant and the original omicron variant which led to a surge in infections around the world.

Data suggests prior infection with omicron could help prevent re-infection from BA.2. Existing vaccines also appear to be effective against BA.2, but research is still ongoing.

Dr. Shah says the best thing you can do is to get vaccinated and boosted, and to stay home if you test positive for COVID-19.

He says finding BA.2 in Maine was not unexpected, as health officials are always looking for new variants in the state.

Despite BA.2 being more transmissible, cases of COVID-19 have plummeted globally.

Here in Maine, that trend is being reflected in the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals. On Monday, that number was 168. That’s compared to a peak of 436 reached in mid-January 2022.