Fig 3.

BA.5.5 and BQ.1.1 infections of Syrian hamsters. Hamsters were inoculated intranasally with 2.5 × 10⁴ PFU of the indicated SARS-CoV-2 strain (A). Naïve and BA.5.5- or BQ.1.1-inoculated animals were monitored for weight change daily for 14 days (B). At 3 or 6 dpi, the nasal washes, nasal turbinates, and lungs were collected from each animal and levels of viral RNA and infectious virus were determined by RT-qPCR (C) or plaque assay (D), respectively (lines indicate median ± SEM, dotted lines indicate limits of detection; n = 9–10 hamsters per group per time point, two experiments; Mann-Whitney test between BA.5.5- and BQ.1.1-infected groups; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01).