United States: The threat and concerns linked to COVID-19 infection have been increased among the health experts and authorities of the United States as a new variant named KP.3.1.1. has been becoming dominant across the nation.
The speed of the variant is swift, as compared to the other variants, as the number of cases has increased by double in just two weeks. The concerning stats have been shared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to reports by Newsweek.
As of August 3, the new variant was responsible for more than one in the four US COVID-19 cases. As per the experts, the current cases are “challenging” for human immune systems – if compared to previous variants.
Source of KP.3.1.1!
The health experts have outlined that the currently dominating variant is the sub-lineage of the previously dominant variant KP.3. Currently, both the variants, KP.3.1.1 and KP.3 variants are responsible for half of the COVID-19 cases in the United States.
The concerns are high because the virus has been spreading during the times when the nation has been dealing with a “summer wave” linked to SARS-CoV-2. It is to be noted that both variants belong to new variants, which have been collectively named FLiRT variants, which have been named followed by the mutations in the projections on the surface of the virus that help in entering the human cells, as per Newsweek.
The experts explain that these projections have been termed spikes, which are major targets of our immune system or vaccines.
The experts and scientists – studying the new variant – has revealed that KP.3.1.1 vairant is the most infectious variant, as compared to the previous ones, including the KP.3. It is to be noted that this variant can more easily invade our immune systems and the current vaccine could be less effective against the same.
What experts have to comment?
A professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research – Eric Topol, took his official Twitter account, which is now called as X, and mentioned that the new variant was “more of a challenge to our immune response than KP.3 and prior variants.”
Continuing his statement, he mentioned, “Buckle up; this wave isn’t over yet [due to] KP.3.1.1’s emergence,” reported Newsweek.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also mentioned that the cases linked KP3.1.1. variant has been increased in the United States after “very high” levels of COVID-19 infection was reported in wastewater around the US. Notably, as many as 20 states have reported “very high” levels and more than half of the states have reported “high” levels.
Along with this, the federal health agency has reported an increase in the cases linked to the virus, but hospitalization remains low. Besides this, it has been reported that the new FLiRT variants are infectious but do not cause severe symptoms, which could be:
- Cough
- Runny nose
- Diarrhea
- Loss of taste or smell
- Muscle or body aches
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea or vomiting
- Fever or chills
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Sore throat
Furthermore, a virus expert as well as professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick in the UK – Lawrence Young, stated, “We need to keep monitoring the spread of this variant,” as per Newsweek.