1.Just as the omicron surge starts to recede in parts of the U.S., scientists have their eye on another coronavirus variant spreading rapidly in parts of Asia and Europe.
就在奥密克戎病毒的疫情开始在美国部分地区消退的同时，科学家们又开始关注另一种冠状病毒变种在亚洲和欧洲部分地区的快速传播。
2.It's officially called "omicron BA.2," and this week scientists detected cases of it in several U.S. states, including California, Texas and Washington.
它的官方名称是“奥密克戎BA.2”，本周科学家在美国几个州发现了它的病例，包括加利福尼亚、德克萨斯和华盛顿。
3.Although BA.2 is currently rare in the U.S., scientists expect it to spread in the country over the next month.
尽管BA.2目前在美国还很少见，但科学家预计它将在下个月在美国传播。
4.There's growing evidence that it's just as contagious as — or possibly a bit more contagious than — the first omicron variant, called "omicron BA.1."
越来越多的证据表明，“omicron BA.2”和奥密克戎的第一种变体“omicron BA.1”一样具有传染性，或者可能比它更具传染性。
5."It could be that BA.2 does have some small advantage," says Emma Hodcroft, an epidemiologist at the University of Bern who has been tracking variants all around the world throughout the pandemic via the Nextstrain project.
“可能BA.2确实在病毒各种变体中有一些小的优势，”伯尔尼大学的流行病学家艾玛·霍克罗夫特说，她一直通过下一个菌株项目在疫情追踪世界各地的变异株
6."BA.2 might well be, like, 1% to 3% more transmissible, or something like that."
“BA.2的传播性可能会提高1%到3%，或者类似的水平。”
7.So the big question now is, will that small difference be enough for this variant to lengthen the ongoing surge in the U.S., as it has in Denmark?
所以现在的大问题是，这个微小的差异是否足以让这种变异延长美国疫情的时间，就像在丹麦时一样？
8.Over the past several weeks, omicron BA.2 has begun to surprise scientists.
在过去的几周里，奥密克戎BA.2开始让科学家们感到惊讶。
9.And it's starting to look like it can, in some countries, outcompete its sibling omicron BA.1 — and, really, any other variants.
在一些国家，它开始看起来可以击败它的同门奥密克戎BA.1，实际上，也可以击败任何其他变体。
10.Back in December, omicron BA.1 caused a massive surge in cases in Denmark, similar to the surge in the United States.
早在12月，奥密克戎BA.1就曾在丹麦引起了大规模的病例激增，类似于美国的病例激增。
11.But then, just as cases began to decline, BA.2 started spreading very rapidly in Denmark.
但是，就在病例开始下降的时候，BA.2又开始在丹麦迅速传播。
12.After only a few weeks, BA.2 took over the outbreak there and has lengthened Denmark's surge.
仅仅几周后，BA.2接管了BA.1，并延长了丹麦疫情时间。
13.Denmark's cases are climbing steeply, with more than 40,000 recorded each day.
目前丹麦的病例仍在急剧上升，每天记录超过4万例。
14.Since the second week in January, BA.2 has caused more than 50% of those cases, according to the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen.
根据哥本哈根的斯塔滕斯血清研究所的数据，自1月份的第二周以来，超过50%的病例是由BA.2导致的。
