Woman wearing masks to protect against Covid-19 on April 7, 2024 in London, United Kingdom.
Mike Kemp | In images | fake images
LONDON – New strains of Covid-19 are spreading around the world, raising concerns among health professionals about a possible increase in cases in the summer, four and a half years since the start of the pandemic.
FLiRT variants, whose label is derived from the names of mutations in the variants' genetic code, have increased in the United States and Europe as the coronavirus continues to mutate from previous strains.
The new group descends from the previously dominant JN.1 variant, an offshoot of omicron. 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 the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
KP.2 is now the dominant strain in the US, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The strain accounted for 28.2% of all cases in the two weeks to May 11, up from 3.8% in late March, shortly after the strain was first discovered.
Cases of KP.1.1, another FLiRT variant, have also increased to account for 7.1% of current infections, the agency said.
Also in Europe, cases have been increasing and the new variant has already been detected in 14 countries.
The World Health Organization in its latest update earlier this month said cases remain limited in all reporting countries. However, some countries are showing “slight increases in detections from very low levels.”
Last week, the U.K. Health Security Agency said it continues to monitor data related to new variants in the U.K. and internationally, assessing their severity and the current effectiveness of vaccines. “There is no change to the broader public health advice at this time,” the agency said in an update.
It currently appears unlikely that the new strains will cause a major wave of infections as seen in the past, when public immunity was lower, said Jennifer Horney, an epidemiology professor at the University of Delaware. But she noted that the new strains would likely cause a rise in cases over the coming summer months.
“Although our idea of what a wave of COVID-19 infections looks like has changed over the course of the pandemic, these new strains are likely to cause increases in the number of cases in the US in the coming months,” Horney said. . she told CNBC via email.
“Many will be mild, based on our existing immunity and not changes in the circulating strain,” he said.
Still, health professionals will watch closely to see how effective the current vaccines are against the new strains.
Next month, the US Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory committee will meet to discuss variants-mixing recommendations for this winter's Covid-19 vaccine, after having postponed an earlier discussion to gather More data.
