going to sweep and will be the dominant

[GoodTaste]

“I was thinking: ‘BA.1 has the upper hand. We’ll never hear again from BA.2,’” recalls Mark Zeller, a genomic epidemiologist at the Scripps Research Institute. Eight weeks later, he says, “Clearly that’s not the case. … I’m pretty sure [BA.2] is going to be everywhere in the world, that it’s going to sweep and will be the dominant variant soon in most countries if not all.”
Source: Science

I understand "sweep" as "move with great force". Am I on the right track?

 

[Skrej]

Kind of, but it's really more about moving swiftly.

See transitive definition 2c.

 

[Tdol]

It's going to take over, the way omicron did to the delta wave- it's going to move at incredible speed and drive the older variants out. Transmission is the key, so I agree with Skrej- it's about being faster. Delta took over from alpha, then got kicked into touch by omicron. The one from Peru that people were worried about never got a look in. But this new one could overtake- move around the world fast and drive omicron out of business.