Experts have issued an urgent warning about a highly contagious new coronavirus variant that is spreading rapidly during Australia’s winter season.
The new coronavirus strain, LB.1, follows the JN.1 variant and its subvariants KP.2 and KP.3, which were responsible for most new infections between May 7 and June 11.
LB.1 is similar to the FLiRT variant, both are Omicron subvariants that began spreading in Australia in April, however, LB.1 has additional mutations compared to FLiRT.
Symptoms of the LB.1 strain include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea.
Pail Griffin, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Queensland, said the variant was also “a little bit more” transmissible than its previous counterparts.
“Whenever the spike protein changes, it means our protection from past infections or vaccinations is reduced and therefore they become a little bit more transmissible,” Griffin told SBS News.
Professor Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of South Australia, also confirmed that the new strain was highly contagious.
“While LB.1 is almost certainly more transmissible than KP.2, it does not appear to outcompete KP.3 and its offspring,” Professor Esterman said.
“It’s problematic because it overlaps significantly with our flu season. And there are also other diseases like mycoplasma and whooping cough, so that means there are a lot of people with respiratory infections right now.”
Experts have warned that the new coronavirus variant, known as LB.1, is highly contagious
Symptoms of the LB.1 strain include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea.
There is still no conclusive information on whether LB.1 is more severe than other variants.
However, a person’s overall health and immunity are important factors in determining the severity of the infection.
Australia’s National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System found that hospital admissions for Covid were declining across the country. On July 9, the seven-day average was 53, down from 107 the previous month.
However, the LB.1 strain has caused a surge in hospitalizations in the United States, with emergency room visits increasing more than 23 percent on July 9, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Australians are urged to wear masks, stay away from sick people and get the latest Covid vaccine to help prevent the spread of the new strain.
Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, explained that the current vaccine protects against severe disease.
‘The current vaccine is not very effective at providing long-lasting protection against infection (and has been for some time) with the current large number of variants, although it does protect against severe disease.’
(tags to translate)dailymail
