A highly contagious new Omicron strain is spreading quickly around the world and could soon displace the globally dominant BA.5 variant. Scientists say the strain, dubbed BA.2.75, has been gaining ground quickly in India and other countries, including the United States. The new variant has spike-protein mutations that allow it to bind to cells more easily and could help it to evade antibodies, but it’s not yet clear whether it causes serious illness than earlier strains of the COVID-19 variant. Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told the AP that it was too early to draw conclusions, “but it does look like, especially in India, the rates of transmission are showing kind of that exponential increase.”