REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoOct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators on Friday estimated that BQ.1 and closely related BQ.1.1 accounted for 16.6% of coronavirus variants in the country, nearly doubling from last week, while Europe expects them to become the dominant variants in a month. The two variants are descendants of Omicron's BA.5 subvariant, which is the dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States. New variants are monitored closely by regulators and vaccine manufacturers in case they start to evade protection offered by current shots. The World Health Organization this week said BQ.1.1 is circulating in at least 29 countries. The U.S. CDC said on Friday BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 last week were estimated to make up 9.4% of circulating variants.

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