A new strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is spreading, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to track its activity in the context of the pandemic. The new XBB.1.16 variant, also called Covid Arcturus, recently caught the attention of the organization because it appears to be spreading at a much faster rate than other recent strains based on initial studies, the Jerusalem Post reports.
The variant of COVID Arcturus
Arcturus recently gained media attention after it sparked a surge in cases in India in late March. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the country recorded 40,215 active cases. About 7,930 of these were reported as new cases. “It’s a situation to watch,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19, said during a recent briefing, according to CNN. However, while XBB.1.16 appears to spread more rapidly than other variants, it does not appear to cause more serious disease than the latter. “It’s been around for a few months. We haven’t seen a change in severity in individuals or populations, but that’s why we have these systems in place,” said Van Kerkhove. The Japanese and Czech researchers noted in a pre-print study that Arcturus appears capable of spreading much faster than Omicron’s XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 variants. It is also “robustly resistant” to various SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The team noted that some mutations in the virus may have contributed to its increased viral growth efficiency in the human population.
The WHO position
Due to the increased infectivity of the new variant, the WHO classified it as a “variant under monitoring” at the end of March. The researchers believed that Arcturus would spread globally in the near future. According to the latest WHO data, there have been 762,791,152 confirmed cases and 6,897,025 deaths from COVID-19 worldwide. Meanwhile, 13,340,275,493 doses of the disease vaccine have been administered. In the United States, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a total of 104,348,746 cases and 1,128,404 deaths. In April, the number of ongoing hospital admissions due to COVID-19 is 11,471.
Who can still receive the single-purpose COVID booster?
Last week, The Washington Post reported that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would likely approve a second bivalent booster to extend the protection provided by vaccines in the coming weeks. However, according to one report, the FDA could also opt for an annual booster that would be distributed in the fall, like the annual flu shot, instead of a spring booster.