Category: Corona Virus

The "FLiRT" COVID-19 variants are a new group of strains circulating in the United States, which now account for over one in four cases nationwide.

Although cases and hospitalizations have been down, the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to mutate and give rise to a seemingly endless stream of new variants.

The latest to gain attention, KP.2 and KP.1.1, are part of a new family of subvariants called "FLiRT," which were detected in wastewater samples earlier this spring and are now causing an increasing proportion of cases.

According to experts, KP.2 and KP.1.1 may be more transmissible and better at escaping prior immunity than previous variants, which has sparked concern about a possible summer wave.

The variants have also sparked plenty of reactions and jokes on social media. Are we "flirting" with dangerous new variant? Why is it called FLiRT in the first place?

KP.2 and KP.1.1 are spinoffs of the omicron subvariant JN.1.11.1, which is a direct descendant of JN.1, the dominant strain for most of the winter, TODAY.com previously reported.

KP.2 and KP.1.1 are similar to JN.1, but they picked up additional mutations which appear to be giving the new strains an advantage over other variants, Dr. Albert Ko, infectious disease physician and professor of public health, epidemiology and medicine at Yale School of Public Health, previously told TODAY.com.

Last month, KP.2 rapidly overtookJN.1, which drove asurge in COVID cases last winter, to become the dominant strain in the U.S. Currently, KP.2 accounts for over 25% of cases, according to the latest data fromthe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I think these two mutations together are making KP.2 a better virus in that it maintains its ability to transmit, but also now evades some of the pre-existing immunity in the population, Andrew Pekosz, Ph.D., virologist at Johns Hopkins University, previously told TODAY.com.

As KP.2 and KP.1.1 gained traction, scientists on social media came up with a catchy new nickname, FLiRT," to use instead of the mouthful of letters and numbers.

It's distinct from other unofficial variant names Pirola, Eris, Arcturus, and Kraken which seem to fall into a theme of Greek mythology and constellations.

The name "FLiRT" was reportedly coined in March on X, formerly known as Twitter, by T Ryan Gregory, Ph.D., a biologyprofessorat the University of Guelph in Ontario. Gregory regularly posts about the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and is behind many of the other popular variant nicknames.

Not surprisingly, the new strains arent spread by winking, giving compliments, or other signals of romantic interest and attraction. They have nothing to do with flirting at all.

The name FLiRT is based on the technical names for the variants' spike protein mutations, Pekosz said. These two mutations are at position 456 (F for L) and position 346 (R for T), Pekosz said. The "FL" and "RT" were combined into "FLiRT," according to the Infectious Disease Society of America.

When new variants emerge, they are described using a combination of letters and numbers, such as KP.2, JN.1, or HV.1. These letters and numbers refer to the variants Pango lineage, which is similar to a family tree, with lineages descending from the parental strain, according to the CDC.

A group of closely related viruses is called a lineage and the direct descendants of each variant are referred to as a sublineages for example, BA.2.75 is a sublineage of BA.2. These lineages are named using an alphabetical prefix, such as BA or XBB, followed by a numerical suffix (such as .1 or .1.1.5), per the CDC.

Think of KP.2 and KP.1.1 as branches extending from the JN.1 branch, which is a direct descendent of BA.2.86 or Pirola.

As the virus continues to mutate and change, these technical names can become long and difficult to remember or say. That's where nicknames come in handy.

In 2021, the World Health Organization introduced a simpler system to label key variants. Each new variant of interest and variant of concern would be named after letters of the Greek alphabet. These include the alpha, beta, delta and omicron lineages.

Omicron (B.1.1.529) began circulating in the fall of 2021. Since then, the omicron virus variant has mutated and given rise to new subvariants. All of the COVID-19 strains that have emerged and gained dominance since 2022 have been descendants of omicron.

These include omicron BA.2, BA.4 and XBB. Once again, the clunky combinations of letters and numbers are used to distinguish between variants. Nicknames like FLiRT help make sense of the "variant soup," as Gregory wrote in a tweet.

Despite it's playful name, the new set of COVID-19 variants are nothing to joke about. It's important to take precautions against COVID-19 and keep up to date with vaccinations to prevent severe disease and complications.

Caroline Kee is a health reporter at TODAY based in New York City.

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How The New COVID Variants Got The Nickname 'FLiRT' - TODAY

ATLANTA COVID-19 levels are about the lowest they've ever been in the United States, but another new crop of virus variants once again threatens to disrupt the downward trend as the country heads into summer.

KP.2 one of the so-called FLiRT variants has overtaken JN.1 to become the dominant coronavirus variant in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data through May 11 shows that it's responsible for more than a quarter of cases in the country, which is nearly twice as many as JN.1. A related variant, KP.1.1, has caused about 7% of cases, CDC data shows.

FLiRT variants are offshoots of the JN.1 variant all part of the broader Omicron family that caused this winter's wave. The acronym in the name refers to the locations of the amino acid mutations that the virus has picked up some in places that help it evade the body's immune response and others that help it become more transmissible.

COVID-19 variants are "accumulating mutations that do one of two things: They either cause antibodies that you've accumulated from vaccination or infection to no longer bind to the virus we call that escape from immunity or they increase the strength in which the viruses bind to cells," said Dr. Andy Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

This has become a familiar pattern in the way the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to evolve, but experts say we still don't know enough to predict exactly where the changes will occur next or how they will affect the way the virus moves through the population.

The mutations of the FLiRT variants make increased transmissibility and a possible summer wave a real threat. COVID-19 is settling into some seasonal patterns, which have included a summer bump in years past, but the exact level of risk for this year is unclear.

"We've had some variants in the past that start out kind of strong and then don't take over. These subvariants could progressively become dominant, or they could get up to accounting for somewhere between 20% and 40% of the cases and then just stay there. We just have to see," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. "The virus continues to be in charge. It's going to tell us what it's going to do. All of our crystal balls are rather cloudy."

COVID-19 surveillance has scaled back significantly since the U.S. public health emergency ended a year ago, which also adds to the uncertainty. But the data that is available is consistent. For now, wastewater surveillance suggests that viral activity is very low and decreasing in all regions of the country, and COVID-19 hospitalization rates remain extremely low.

"We learned from the laboratories that FLiRT variants appeared, so far, to be as transmissible as the other Omicron subvariants, which means they're really quite contagious. But they do not appear to be producing more severe disease or any sort of illness that's distinctive from the point of view of clinical presentation symptoms," Schaffner said.

As of May 1, the requirement for all hospitals to report COVID-19 data to the federal government has expired. But Schaffner's Vanderbilt University Medical Center is part of a CDC-run surveillance network that continues to track trends based on a sample of hospitals that cover about 10% of the U.S. population. COVID-19 hospitalization rates have fallen from nearly eight new admissions for every 100,000 people in the first week of the year to about one new admission for every 100,000 people at the end of April, the data shows.

While the FLiRT variants pose some risk this summer, experts remain focused on what might happen in the fall.

"If I were to predict, I would say that this might result in a few extra cases, a small surge this summer. But it's really going to be about which variant is around when we get to the fall," Pekosz said. "The fall is probably when we should expect to see a surge of COVID cases. And if we have a variant around there that has a lot of these mutations that avoid immunity, then the potential in the fall to have a larger surge is greater."

The fall and winter pose a greater risk because of the immunity that has built up in the population, he said.

"The virus now needs better conditions to transmit, and those better conditions to transmit are probably going to happen in the fall when weather gets cooler, people are spending more time indoors and they're more likely to be in environments where respiratory virus transmission occurs more efficiently."

Research published Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA is a reminder of the burden that COVID-19 continues to have in the U.S. This winter, while COVID-19 hospitalization rates were far lower than they were in earlier years, it was still deadlier than the flu. A study of thousands of hospital patients found that 5.7% of COVID-19 patients died, compared with 4.2% of those hospitalized for influenza. In other words, COVID-19 carried about a 35% higher risk of death than flu.

People who received the latest COVID-19 vaccine this past fall may still have some protection against the latest variants; that vaccine targeted a different strain but was found to be similarly effective against JN.1, and experts say that some of those benefits may extend to its FLiRT relatives. People who had a recent infection especially since the start of the year, when JN.1 was prominent may also have some protection. But immunity wanes over time.

For now, experts say, risk remains relatively low.

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New virus variants threaten a summer COVID-19 wave, but experts say risk remains uncertain - KSL.com

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Health-care workers received the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020. A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that repeat vaccination with updated versions of the COVID-19 vaccine promotes the development of antibodies that neutralize a wide range of variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as related coronaviruses.

Credit: Matt Miller/Washington University

The COVID-19 pandemic is over, but the virus that caused it is still here, sending thousands of people to the hospital each week and spinning off new variants with depressing regularity. The viruss exceptional ability to change and evade immune defenses has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to recommend annual updates to COVID-19 vaccines.

But some scientists worry that the remarkable success of the first COVID-19 vaccines may work against updated versions, undermining the utility of an annual vaccination program. A similar problem plagues the annual flu vaccine campaign; immunity elicited by one years flu shots can interfere with immune responses in subsequent years, reducing the vaccines effectiveness.

A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis helps to address this question. Unlike immunity to influenza virus, prior immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, doesnt inhibit later vaccine responses. Rather, it promotes the development of broadly inhibitory antibodies, the researchers report.

The study, available online in Nature, shows that people who were repeatedly vaccinated for COVID-19 initially receiving shots aimed at the original variant, followed by boosters and updated vaccines targeting variants generated antibodies capable of neutralizing a wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants and even some distantly related coronaviruses. The findings suggest that periodic re-vaccination for COVID-19, far from hindering the bodys ability to recognize and respond to new variants, may instead cause people to gradually build up a stock of broadly neutralizing antibodies that protect them from emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and some other coronavirus species as well, even ones that have not yet emerged to infect humans.

The first vaccine an individual receives induces a strong primary immune response that shapes responses to subsequent infection and vaccination, an effect known as imprinting, said senior authorMichael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine. In principle, imprinting can be positive, negative or neutral. In this case, we see strong imprinting that is positive, because its coupled to the development of cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies with remarkable breadth of activity.

Imprinting is the natural result of how immunological memory works. A first vaccination triggers the development of memory immune cells. When people receive a second vaccination quite similar to the first, it reactivates memory cells elicited by the first vaccine. These memory cells dominate and shape the immune response to the subsequent vaccine.

In the case of the flu vaccine, imprinting has negative effects. Antibody-producing memory cells crowd out new antibody-producing cells, and people develop relatively few neutralizing antibodies against the strains in the newer vaccine. But in other cases, imprinting can be positive, by promoting the development of cross-reactive antibodies that neutralize strains in both the initial and subsequent vaccines.

To understand how imprinting influences the immune response to repeat COVID-19 vaccination, Diamond and colleagues including first author Chieh-Yu Liang, a graduate student, studied the antibodies from mice or people who had received a sequence of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters targeting first the original and then omicron variants. Some of the human participants also had been naturally infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

The first question was the strength of the imprinting effect. The researchers measured how many of the participants neutralizing antibodies were specific for the original variant, the omicron variant or both. They found that very few people had developed any antibodies unique to omicron, a pattern indicative of strong imprinting by the initial vaccination. But they also found few antibodies unique to the original variant. The vast majority of neutralizing antibodies cross-reacted with both.

The next question was how far the cross-reactive effect extended. Cross-reactive antibodies, by definition, recognize a feature shared by two or more variants. Some features are shared only by similar variants, others by all SARS-CoV-2 variants or even all coronaviruses. To assess the breadth of the neutralizing antibodies, the researchers tested them against a panel of coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 viruses from two omicron lineages; a coronavirus from pangolins; the SARS-1 virus that caused the 2002-03 SARS epidemic; and the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus. The antibodies neutralized all the viruses except MERS virus, which comes from a different branch of the coronavirus family tree than the others.

Further experiments revealed that this remarkable breadth was due to the combination of original and variant vaccines. People who received only the vaccines targeting the original SARS-CoV-2 variant developed some cross-reactive antibodies that neutralized the pangolin coronavirus and SARS-1 virus, but the levels were low. After boosting with an omicron vaccine, though, the cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies against the two coronavirus species increased.

Taken together, the findings suggest that regular re-vaccination with updated COVID-19 vaccines against variants might give people the tools to fight off not only the SARS-CoV-2 variants represented in the vaccines, but also other SARS-CoV-2 variants and related coronaviruses, possibly including ones that have not yet emerged.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world population was immunologically nave, which is part of the reason the virus was able to spread so fast and do so much damage, said Diamond, also a professor of molecular microbiology and of pathology & immunology. We do not know for certain whether getting an updated COVID-19 vaccine every year would protect people against emerging coronaviruses, but its plausible. These data suggest that if these cross-reactive antibodies do not rapidly wane we would need to follow their levels over time to know for certain they may confer some or even substantial protection against a pandemic caused by a related coronavirus.

Experimental study

People

Imprinting of serum neutralizing antibodies by Wuhan-1 mRNA vaccines.

15-May-2024

M.S.D. is a consultant or advisor for Inbios, Vir Biotechnology, IntegerBio, Moderna, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline. The Diamond laboratory has received additional unrelated funding support in sponsored research agreements from Vir Biotechnology, Emergent BioSolutions, and IntegerBio. G.A.A., S.M.E, and D.K.E. are employees of and shareholders in Moderna, Inc. J.E.C. has served as a consultant for Luna Biologics, is a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of CompuVax and Meissa Vaccines and is Founder of IDBiologics. The Crowe laboratory at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received sponsored research agreements from Takeda Vaccines, IDBiologics, and AstraZeneca. Vanderbilt University has applied for a patent concerning antibodies that are related to this work (U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/513,255). All other authors declare no competing interests.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Repeat COVID-19 vaccinations elicit antibodies that neutralize variants, other viruses - EurekAlert

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A new COVID-19 variant, FLiRT, could cause a summer surge. These are the symptoms. - Worcester Telegram

KP.2 is a descendent of the Omicron JN.1 strain and is surpassing JN.1 in countries such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Covid cases of FLiRT have been spreading quickly in the US and have also been detected in India.

Ninety-one cases of the new Covid subvariant KP.2 were detected in Maharashtra recently, following which experts allayed concerns about the variant causing issues in Karnataka.

According to TOI, the variant was found as a dominant strain in April, after the first cases were identified in January. More such cases have also been detected in Thane, Solapur, Pune, Amravati, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Latur and Sanglione.

According to TOI, Chief of Research and Development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Healthcare System Dr Ziyad Al-Aly told NYT, "I dont want to say that we already know everything about KP.2. But at this time, Im not seeing any major indications of anything ominous."

Citing US CDC records, the publication reported that until March, the variants constituted only one per cent of the Covid cases, but after that the cover of the variant reached up to over one quarter of the total cases. Having three substitutions in the S protein, the KP.2 variant seems to be a descendant of the JN.1.

According to a Japanese study cited by TOI, KP.2 has a reproductive number which is 1.22-, 1.32- and 1.26- times, which is higher than JN.1, but in the infectivity rate, JN.1 beats KP.2.

According to TOI, the other variant under the FLiRT, KP.1.1 has not been widespread, as the US CDC data shows that 28 per cent of the Covid cases are due to KP.2 and only 7.1 per cent due to KP.1.1, of the total cases.

Allegedly KP.2 exceeds JN.1 in eluding immunity and is also slightly more infectious than the latter.

According to TOI, Dr David Ho who is a virologist at Columbia University, believes that KP.2 might infect those who have received the most updated vaccine as well.

More here:

What is India's new Covid variant 'FLiRT' and how to stay safe from it - Deccan Herald

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The virus that causes COVID-19 can breach the protective blood-retinal barrier, leading to potential long-term consequences in the eye, new research shows.

The blood-retinal barrier is designed to protect our vision from infections by preventing microbial pathogens from reaching the retina where they could trigger an inflammatory response with potential vision loss.

Pawan Kumar Singh, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Missouri, leads a team researching new ways to prevent and treat ocular infectious diseases.

Using a humanized ACE2 mice model, the team found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can infect the inside of the eyes even when the virus doesnt enter the body through the surface of the eyes.

Instead, they found that when viruses enter the body through inhalation, it not only infects organs like lungs, but also reaches highly protected organs like eyes through the blood-retinal barrier by infecting the cells lining this barrier.

This finding is important as we increase our understanding of the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection, says Singh. Earlier, researchers were primarily focused on the ocular surface exposure of the virus.

However, our findings reveal that SARS-CoV-2 not only reaches the eye during systemic infection but induces a hyperinflammatory response in the retina and causes cell death in the blood-retinal barrier. The longer viral remnants remain in the eye, the risk of damage to the retina and visual function increases.

Singh also discovered that extended presence of SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen can cause retinal microaneurysm, retinal artery and vein occlusion, and vascular leakage.

For those who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, we recommend you ask your ophthalmologist to check for signs of pathological changes to the retina, Singh says. Even those who were asymptomatic could suffer from damage in the eyes over time because of COVID-19 associated complications.

While viruses and bacteria have been found to breach the blood-retinal-barrier in immunocompromised people, this research is the first to suggest that the virus that causes COVID-19 could breach the barrier even in otherwise healthy individuals, leading to an infection that manifests inside the eye itself.

Immunocompromised patients or those with hypertension or diabetes may experience worse outcomes if they remain undiagnosed for COVID-19 associated ocular symptoms.

Now that we know the risk of COVID-19 to the retina, our goal is to better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of how this virus breaches the blood-retinal barrier and associated pathological consequences in hopes of informing development of therapies to prevent and treat COVID-19 induced eye complications before a patients vision is compromised, Singh says.

The study appears in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

The National Institutes of Health/National Eye Institute and the University of Missouri funded the work.

Source: University of Missouri

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COVID virus can infect your eyes and damage vision - Futurity: Research News

The new coronavirus variant called KP.2 nicknamed FLiRT that has been linked to rising cases of Covid-19 in the United States, United Kingdom, and South Korea, has been in circulation in India since November 2023, genomic surveillance data show. About 250 KP.2 sequences have been reported so far by INSACOG, the countrys genome sequencing consortium.

KP.2 is a descendant of the JN.1 variant of the virus. It is a sub-variant of the Omicron lineage with new mutations. FLiRT, the nickname of KP.2, is based on the letters representing two immune escape mutations that allow the virus to evade antibodies.

Genomic scientist Dr Vinod Scaria said: These two mutations on the spike protein disrupt the major sites on the spike protein where antibodies bind and neutralise the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These mutations allow the virus to escape antibodies.

A little more than half of the 250 KP.2 genomes sequenced by INSACOG 128 sequences were from Maharashtra. The highest number of KP.2 sequences were found in March.

India has been reporting the highest proportion of KP.2 sequences in the world, global data show. KP.2 sequences made up 29% of Covid-19 sequences uploaded by India to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), the worlds largest repository of these sequences, over the last 60 days.

However, JN.1 continues to be the dominant variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the country. There were 679 active cases of Covid-19 in India on May 14, according to Union Health Ministry data, and one death in Delhi was attributed to the disease.

FLiRT is characterised by its ability to evade immunity from vaccines and previous infections. Its symptoms are similar to those of earlier variants, including fever, cough, fatigue, and digestive issues.

Experts are watching the variant closely, but they are not very concerned at the moment. There is no need to worry, Dr Anurag Agarwal, dean of the Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University, said. These [immune escape] mutations [like the ones on FLiRT] have been seen before.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that there are currently no indicators suggesting that KP.2 would cause more severe illness than other strains.

Yes, FLiRT has a heightened transmission rate and, like its parent JN.1, it is likely to drive a wave of infections, Dr Scaria said. Also, the infections are likely to spread silently because without severe symptoms, most people are unlikely to get themselves tested.

Dr Rajesh Chawla, senior consultant, pulmonology and critical care at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi, said given the likelihood of easy spread of the virus through respiratory droplets, there is need to take stringent precautions, especially for those with a compromised immune system.

Senior citizens are vulnerable to severe illness due to factors such as age-related physiological changes, decreased immune function, and the presence of comorbidities. Research indicates that adults aged 60 and older, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions like heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, or cancer, are more likely to experience severe and potentially fatal Covid-19 infections compared to other age groups.

People who are 65 and older, or immunocompromised, and pregnant women are the most vulnerable.

This variant, like many of its Omicron predecessors, mainly affects the upper respiratory tract. There is no documented difference in presentations, Dr Scaria said.

Dr Chawla said that those affected report fever or chills, cough, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, headache, muscle aches, difficulty in breathing, fatigue, loss of taste or smell, brain fog, feeling less wakeful and aware, and gastro-intestinal symptoms including upset stomach, mild diarrhoea, and vomiting.

Hospitalisation rates for patients with these symptoms were not higher than usual, Dr Chawla said.

How can infection be prevented?

Preventive measures are the same as the ones that have been advised since the beginning of the Covid outbreak four years ago. Social distancing and the use of well-fitting respirators like N95s or KN95s in indoor public settings protect against all variants of the Covid-19 virus.

Increased air flow and filtration in indoor spaces also help reduce the concentration of virus particles. Vulnerable groups and those living in areas where the infection is in circulation should be especially careful.

Most Covid-19 vaccines available in India are aimed at the original variant of the virus, so additional shots are unlikely to help.

In late April, the WHOs Covid vaccine advisory group advised the use of JN.1 lineage as the antigen for upcoming vaccine formulations, as the FLiRT variants are within the JN.1 family. However the Indian vaccines are not updated with the JN.1 variant, and therefore booster doses in India are unlikely to be effective, Dr Scaria said.

Dr Agarwal said that most Indians do not need a booster because they have probably already had repeated infections, including silent infections with JN.1.

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What is the new FLiRT variant of the Covid virus, and should you worry? - The Indian Express

The coronavirus has once again evolved, in a familiar echo of past years. Unlike earlier iterations of the virus, this new variant is not sparking widespread havoc.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is monitoring a variant called KP.2 and does not see evidence it causes more severe illness than other strains. Laboratory tests have shown that KP.2 is not causing a surge in infections or transmission, the agency said.

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What to know about covid variant FLiRT symptoms, spread and vaccines - The Washington Post

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Maharashtra has recorded 91 cases of the new FLiRT COVID-19 variants, which also accounts for more than a third of cases in the US. However, there is no cause for worry as of now, a top expert said on Sunday.

The new set of variants dubbed FLiRT, majorly includes KP.1.1, and KP.2 strains. These are named based on the technical names for their mutations, one of which includes the letters "F" and "L", and another of which includes the letters "R" and "T".

Genome sequencing of March and April showed that Maharashtra has 91 cases of KP.2 Pune (51), Thane (20), Amravati (7) Aurangabad (7), Solapur (2), Ahmednagar (1), Nashik (1), Latur (1), and Sangli (1).

"What we see now, is the result of genome sequencing of the last two months, that is March and April. So, there is no cause of concern immediately as out of the 91 cases, not a single death, hospitalisation, or severe disease has been reported," infectious disease expert Dr Ishwar Gilada, told IANS. "Even the test positivity rate is around 1%," he added.

Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, Maharashtras genome sequencing coordinator, said that KP.2 has become the predominant COVID-19 strain in the state. However, there hasnt been a corresponding increase in hospitalisations or severe cases, The Times of India reported.

FLiRT variants come from the lineage of the highly transmissible and immune system-evading Omicron. First identified globally in January, KP.2 is a descendant of Omicrons JN.1. According to the data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, KP.2 accounted for about one in four or 25% of new sequenced cases in the country in the last weeks of April.

Similar to previous variants, the symptoms typically include a sore throat, runny nose, congestion, tiredness, fever (with or without chills), headache, muscle pain, and sometimes loss of taste or smell.

"COVID has not gone away, but it is not creating any havoc. It is not creating any hospitalisation or deaths, and it is much milder than the flu. So, it should not be considered a separate disease. It should be considered like the flu and we can call it Covi-flu," said Dr Gilada, Consultant in Infectious Diseases Unison Medicare and Research Centre, Mumbai. However, he called for proper whole genome sequencing.

"Though the variant will become prominent in numbers, it is not causing a surge in demand for oxygen, beds, ICUs, or ventilators, and there are also no deaths. So, I think we should not be worried and concentrate on other emerging health problems," he said.

**

The above article has been published from a wire agency with minimal modifications to the headline and text.

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FLiRT COVID-19: Maharashtra Reports 91 Cases of New Variant; Majority Seen in Pune, Thane | Weather.com - The Weather Channel

Is the new COVID-19 variant, FLiRT, that has resulted in a spike in cases in the US, UK, South Korea, and is now in India a cause of concern?

So far, India has reported 250 cases. Most cases are being attributed to two variants KP.2 and KP1.1 - which are descendants of the Omicron JN.1. which spread globally over the winter last year. They can evade immunity from vaccines and previous infections.

According to Dr Rajesh Chawla, senior consultant, pulmonology and critical care, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, the FLiRT Covid-19 variants, particularly KP.2, are considered more infectious than earlier Omicron variants. Listen in to him.

FLiRT is a sub-variant of the Omicron lineage with new mutations. It is characterised by its ability to evade immunity from vaccines and previous infections. Its symptoms are similar to those of earlier variants, including fever, cough, fatigue and digestive issues with a heightened transmission rate. FLiRT demands stringent precautions.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that there are currently no indicators suggesting that KP.2 would cause more severe illness than other strains.

Like Omicron and Pirola, this strain mainly affects the upper respiratory tract. Those affected report fever or chills, cough, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, headache, muscle aches, difficulty breathing, fatigue, loss of taste or smell, brain fog, feeling less wakeful and aware, gastro-intestinal symptoms, including upset stomach, mild diarrhoea and vomitting.

Hospitalization rates for patients with these symptoms are not higher than usual.

Yes it does. Particularly KP.2 is considered more infectious than earlier Omicron variants. The heightened transmission rate of FLiRT variants demands stringent precautions. The FLiRT variants can spread easily through respiratory droplets, posing risks to all, especially the unvaccinated and those with compromised immunity.

What are preventive methods?

Stay up-to-date with Covid-19 vaccines, including boosters, to reduce the risk of severe illness. Use well-fitting respirators like N95s or KN95s in indoor public settings, especially in areas with high transmission rates. Increase air flow and filtration in indoor spaces to reduce the concentration of virus particles. Use rapid antigen tests if you have been part of a gathering or been exposed to someone with Covid-19. Isolate if positive and stay at home to avoid spread.

It is important to follow these prevention strategies besides hand hygiene and social distancing to provide the best protection against Covid-19 and its evolving variants. Staying informed about local transmission levels and following public health guidance can help reduce the impact of the FLiRT variant.

How prone are the elderly to infection?

Senior citizens are particularly prone to severe illness due to various factors such as age-related physiological changes, decreased immune function, and the presence of comorbidities. Research indicates that adults aged 60 and older, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions like heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, or cancer, are more likely to experience severe and potentially fatal Covid-19 infections compared to other age groups. The most vulnerable group continues to be people who are 65 and older, pregnant women or immunocompromised.

What about those who have received earlier versions of the vaccine?

While the FLiRT variant may lead to breakthrough infections and partial evasion of the immune systems defences, older vaccines can continue to offer substantial protection against severe illness, hospitalisation and mortality. Studies suggest that although vaccines may not entirely prevent infection, they significantly reduce viral loads, leading to milder symptoms and lower transmission rates.

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Is Covid-19 variant FLiRT a cause for worry? Here's all you need to know - The Indian Express