In just over a month since a new COVID variant known as BQ.1 was first named, that strain and a descendant called BQ.1.1 have already grown to make up more than 10% of new infections across the country, according to updated estimates published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Less than half of counties are seeing community transmission bad enough to warrant requiring universal masking in hospitals and nursing homes, under recent federal guidance.A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said they did not currently have data on how BQ.1 might impact its drug.BQ.1 is one of a wide-ranging "soup" of new strains that scientists have been tracking, over concerns that their mutations at specific positions on the spike protein of the virus could fuel a surge.However, so far little is known about what impact these mutations might have in affecting the severity of the disease, which would require further studies in animals and humans."