Woman wearing face masksto protect against Covid-19 on seventh April 2024 in London, United Kingdom.
Mike Kemp | In Pictures | Getty Images
LONDON — Latest strains of Covid-19 are spreading globally, raising concerns amongst health professionals a couple of possible summer spike in cases, four-and-a-half years for the reason that onset of the pandemic.
The FLiRT variants — whose label derives from the names of the mutations within the variants’ genetic code — have been rising within the U.S. and Europe because the coronavirus continues to mutate from earlier strains.
The brand new grouping are descendants of the previously dominant JN.1 variant, an offshoot of omicron. There may be currently little evidence that the brand new strains are more severe, but they seem to have independently picked up the identical set of mutations, according to John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
KP.2 is now the dominant strain within the U.S., in keeping with the newest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The strain accounted for 28.2% of all cases within the two weeks to May 11, up from 3.8% at the tip of March, shortly after the strain was first discovered.
Cases of KP.1.1, one other FLiRT variant, have also risen to account for 7.1% of current infections, the agency said.
In Europe, too, cases have been rising, with the brand new variant now detected in 14 countries.
The World Health Organization in its latest update earlier this month said that cases remain limited in all reporting countries. Individual countries, nevertheless are showing “slight increases in detections from very low levels.”
Last week, the U.K. Health Security Agency said it is continuous to observe data referring to the brand new variants within the U.K. and internationally, assessing their severity and the continuing effectiveness of vaccines. “There is no such thing as a change to the broader public health advice presently,” the agency said in an update.
It currently seems unlikely that the brand new strains will cause a significant wave of infections as seen previously when public immunity was lower, said Jennifer Horney, professor of epidemiology on the University of Delaware. But she noted that the brand new strains would likely result in an uptick in cases throughout the coming summer months.
“While our idea of what a wave of COVID-19 infections looks like has modified over the course of the pandemic, it is probably going that these recent strains will cause increases within the variety of cases within the U.S. over the subsequent few months,” Horney told CNBC via email.
“Many might be mild, based on our existing immunity and never the changes to the circulating strain,” she said.
Still, health professionals might be watching closely to see how effective current vaccines are against the brand new strains.
Next month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccines advisory committee will meet to debate recommendations for the variant mix for this winter’s Covid-19 vaccine, having postponed an earlier discussion to gather more data.
