MailOnline can reveal a new Covid variant wreaking havoc in India already in Britain.
Health chiefs first spotted “Arcturus” last month. Almost 50 cases have been reported so far.
heAnd India’s genitals are now on red alert, with face masks being reinstated compulsory in some states to curb explosive infection rates that have risen 13-fold in the past month.
Arcturus is an offshoot of Omicron, and is believed to be the most infectious species to date.
The new variant of Covid ‘Arcturus’ has led to a significant increase in cases in India over the past month
While the spike is of some concern, it still falls far short of the devastating wave of cases the country saw in 2021 from the delta wave.
However, top scientists do not expect the variant – scientifically named XBB.1.16 – to be more deadly than other types of Covid currently circulating.
At present, the disease caused by the coronavirus is very similar to the flu, unlike the early days of the pandemic.
The UK Health and Security Agency said the variant was already in the UK in its final variant report released last month.
Separate data collected from different trackers indicate that the UK has now sequenced nearly 50 Arcturus specimens.
Officials in India believe the alternative is driving the latest wave single-handedly.
This week, the country’s health ministry conducted a mock exercise to check how prepared its hospitals were for another possible influx of patients.
And some states have reinstated face masks in public, the first time in more than a year in some areas.
India’s health ministry said there were 40,215 active Covid cases on April 12, up by 3,122 cases in just one day.
What is Arcturus and should we be concerned?
A new type of Covid virus dubbed ‘Arcturus’ has raised some concern after causing an increase in the number of cases in India.
What is “Arcturus”?
“Arcturus” is the name given to Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16.
It is a spin-off strain, similar to the one in the Kraken variant (XBB.1.5).
Where was it spotted?
The disease emerged in March and has since been detected in 22 countries, but the largest outbreak to date has been in India.
Why did he raise concern?
Arcturus has led to an increase in the number of cases in India with the number of infections increasing 13-fold over the past month.
This has prompted the country’s health authorities to conduct drills in hospitals and re-enforce mask mandates in some areas.
Is it dangerous?
‘Arcturus’ contains mutations in the spike protein that the Word Health Organization says could increase its ability to infect people as well as trigger disease.
Japanese researchers have suggested that it is 1.2 times more infectious than the already highly pathogenic Kraken.
However, there is no evidence that it increases the severity of the disease.
But the high number of cases could put health services under strain.
Do vaccines still work?
Early results indicate that ‘Arcturus’ has no increased ability to evade protection from vaccines compared to other Omicron spin-offs.
These Covid cases could include those who tested positive while unwell at home as well as in hospital.
Separate figures from the Our World in Data platform run by the University of Oxford show the number of new daily cases reached 3,108 on April 4, up from 242 one month earlier.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently monitoring Arcturus, known scientifically as XBB.1.16.
It was first discovered in late January, with officials saying it contained some worrisome mutations.
It’s been circulating for a few months now,” said Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, technical chief for Covid at the World Health Organization.
We haven’t seen a change in severity in individuals or in populations, but that’s why we have these systems in place.
“It has one additional spike protein mutation that has been shown in laboratory studies to increase infectivity as well as potentially increase pathogenicity.”
Dr Van Kerkhove added that while XBB.1.16 has been detected in other countries, most of the sequences were from India, where it has replaced other variants.
She also said that so far no change in disease severity has been reported in XBB.1.16 infection.
Meanwhile, a study by Japanese scientists indicated that Arcturus is 1.2 times more infectious than the closely related Kraken Covid strain.
Upload their findings to the Biology Research website bioRxiv, They wrote that this feature indicates that the new variant will “spread across the world in the near future.”
They attributed this to mutations that can make it more difficult for the immune system to process and increase its rate of growth.
However, they said there is no evidence that Arcturus has a greater ability to evade protection afforded by vaccines or previous infections than Kraken.
The Kraken strain was the dominant strain in the UK by the end of February, accounting for 50.4 per cent of cases, according to ONS data.
Technically XBB.1.5, the Omicron spin-off was at the time considered the most infectious Covid yet and sparked concern after sparking an increase in cases in several countries.
However, while triggering more cases, the new strain did not cause more severe disease than its predecessor Omicron, which is already considered a ‘milder’ version of Covid.
The rise in cases caused by Arcturus has led the Indian state of Haryana, in the north of the country, to re-use masks in public due to a ‘surge’ in Covid cases.
Veena George, health minister of the southern state of Kerala, on Saturday reintroduced masks to pregnant women, the elderly and those with underlying conditions.
On Monday and Tuesday, hospitals across India took part in mock drills to test their readiness.
ONS analysts estimate that nearly 1.7 million Britons were carrying the virus on any given day in the week ending 13 March. This is a jump of nearly 14 percent from the previous week.
The ONS analysis calculated how much of England’s population was infected from each wave of Covid. The most recent of these, Omicron BA.4/5, was the largest, infecting 46.3 percent of the population. Individuals could be represented twice in the data having been infected with, say, Covid once at the start of the pandemic, and then again during the Omicron surge
Officials have also asked states to ramp up testing for the virus.
The exercises and the return of masks are a grim reminder of how the delta wave has devastated 2021 with a total of 4.7 million excess deaths, according to WHO estimates.
India’s health system has been overwhelmed by a wave of cases caused by this type of Covid, with some hospitals even running out of oxygen.
Like similar new Covid variants, online virus trackers have decided to call XBB.1.16 “Arcturus” after a pattern of naming new strains after mythical entities.
Arcturus means “guardian of the bear” and is associated with the constellation called Ursa Major.
