A woman wears a face mask to protect against the coronavirus infection on April 7, 2024 in London, England.
Mike Kemp | In Photo | Getty Images
LONDON — A new strain of the coronavirus disease Covid-19 is spreading globally, raising concerns among health experts about a possible summer surge in cases, four and a half years into the pandemic.
As the coronavirus continues to mutate from previous strains, FLiRT variants (the label comes from the name of the mutation in the variant’s genetic code) are on the rise in the United States and Europe.
The new group is a descendant of the previously dominant JN.1 subspecies, an omicron derivative. There is currently little evidence that the new strains are more severe, but they appear to have independently detected the same set of mutations. according to John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
KP.2 is now the predominant strain in the United States, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.This stock is 28.2% of all cases In the two weeks to May 11, the rate was up from 3.8% at the end of March, just after the strain was first discovered.
Cases of another FLiRT variant, KP.1.1, are also increasing and account for 7.1% of current infections, the agency said.
The number of infected people is also increasing in Europe, and new variants have now been detected in 14 countries.
The World Health Organization Latest updates He said earlier this month that the number of infections remained limited in all reporting countries. However, individual countries are showing “slight increases in detections from very low levels.”
Last week, the UK Health and Safety Executive said: Said The agency continues to monitor data on new variants in the UK and internationally, assessing their severity and the continued effectiveness of vaccines. “There is no change to the broader public health advice at this time,” the agency said in an update.
Jennifer Horney, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Delaware, said the new strain currently appears unlikely to cause a large wave of infections like those seen in the past when public immunity was low. . However, she noted that the new strain is likely to lead to an increase in the number of infections over the coming summer.
“While our thinking about what a wave of COVID-19 infections looks like has changed over the course of the pandemic, there is a possibility that these new strains will cause an increase in cases in the U.S. in the coming months. is high,” Horney said. he told CNBC via email.
“Many will have milder symptoms based on pre-existing immunity rather than changes in circulating strains,” she says.
Still, medical experts will be watching closely to see how effective current vaccines are against the new variants.
Next month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee is scheduled to meet to discuss recommendations on mixing variants in COVID-19 vaccines this winter. Postponed the Previous discussion to collect more data.
