New FLiRT COVID Variant KP.2 Becomes Dominant – Everyday Health

With the COVID-19 virus continuing to evolve, a new variant dubbed KP.2 has rapidly become the leading cause of COVID infection in the country, making up about 25 percent of new cases.

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KP.2 is a member of a group of variants called FliRT (which is short for the technical names of their mutations). Recent CDC reporting shows that another FliRT variant, KP.1.1, has also been gaining steam and currently accounts for 7.5 percent of infections.

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The Japanese researchers concluded that because of its higher viral fitness, KP.2 will potentially become the predominant lineage worldwide.

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While KP.2 may lead to a rise in new COVID cases, most people should have protection against severe illness and hospitalization because of antibodies from previous infection or vaccination, according to Edward Jones-Lopez, MD, an infectious disease specialist with Keck Medicine of USC in Los Angeles.

As long as the current strain is not so different from the previous strain, we have immunity against serious symptoms due to a combination of both vaccines and natural infections, says Dr. Jones-Lopez.

As with other variants, those at most risk of severe disease with the current variants remain those who are immunosuppressed for instance, those on chemotherapy, those with bone marrow and solid organ transplants, and those over 65 years of age and/or those with comorbid conditions such as diabetes, chronic heart failure, COPD/chronic lung disease, chronic kidney disease, and chronic liver disease, says Dana Hawkinson, MD, the medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City.

For most people who get infected with KP.2 or another FLiRT variant, Dr. Hawkinson expects symptoms to be the same as with other recent variants like JN.1.

Common symptoms include:

If you have mild symptoms, stay at home to avoid spread, and if you have severe symptoms, contact your medical provider.

Hawkinson recommends testing to confirm infection status and taking the antiviral medication Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir) if you are among those at risk for severe disease.

Based on what we know so far about KP.2, Jones-Lopez urges the public to keep calm and proceed with caution.

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New FLiRT COVID Variant KP.2 Becomes Dominant - Everyday Health