The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has confirmed the presence of the BA.2.75 omicron subvariant in wastewater samples in Colorado for the first time through its wastewater surveillance program. Public health officials discovered the presence of BA.2.75 in wastewater samples from Upper Thompson and Estes Park in Larimer County and Brush in Morgan County. There are no confirmed clinical cases at this time. 

The BA.2.75 omicron subvariant was first identified in May of 2022 in India. Scientists are still learning about the characteristics of the variant but note that the number of mutations present in BA.2.75 suggest it could cause some degree of greater immune escape than other circulating omicron subvariants. 

“This is exactly how the wastewater surveillance program is designed to work,” said Allison Wheeler, Waterborne Disease Unit Manager, CDPHE. “The virus can be shed in stool before someone shows symptoms and in this case has notified us about the presence of this variant in the community before we’ve seen it in clinical samples.”