Doctors issue warning over dangerous new Covid strain imported from CHINA that's now in four US states
A new Covid variant behind a surge of hospitalizations in China has been detected at US airports for the first time.
Latest tracking data from the CDC shows the new strain — dubbed NB.1.8.1 — has been detected among international travelers arriving in California, Washington state, Virginia and New York City.
The patients have come from at least nine countries — including Japan, South Korea, France, Thailand, the Netherlands, Spain, Vietnam, China and Taiwan — arriving between April 22 and May 12.
Currently, there is international alarm over the new variant, which is potentially more infectious than previous Covid variants.
In China, official data claims that the proportion of severely ill respiratory patients with Covid has jumped from 3.3 to 6.3 percent over the last month, while the proportion of ER patients testing positive for Covid had jumped from 7.5 to 16.2 percent.
Officials in Taiwan, which is facing an outbreak, are reporting a surge in emergency room admissions, with the number rising 78 percent in a week over the seven-days to May 3, according to the latest data available.
And there are more hospitalizations being reported in Hong Kong, where officials are telling people to mask up, with the number of admissions reaching a 12-month high of 31 people.
Thailand and Singapore have also recorded cases of the variant.
The variant has been circulating in the US since late March, it appears, when cases were first detected in Ohio, Rhode Island and Hawaii. There is no sign at present of widespread transmission of the new variant in the country.
In the US, there is no sign of a major uptick in cases at present — with the positivity rate of swabs detecting the virus falling 12 percent in the latest week data is available.
The data showing arriving cases of the strain in the US was revealed by the CDC's airport testing partner Ginkgo Bioworks and reported by CBS News.
In this program, travelers at select airports can volunteer to self-collect two nasal swab samples and complete a short survey.
These swabs are then tested for a range of diseases of concern, including Covid.
The travelers behind the cases of the new variant were tested between April 22 and May 12.
Experts are closely watching the new variant, which is already dominant in China and is on the rise in parts of Asia.
In Taiwan, there were 19,097 visits for Covid last week, the latest available — and the NB.1.8.1 variant has become dominant in the country.
Early research from China suggests the NB.1.8.1 variant is not better at evading the immune system — but it may be better at binding to cells, making it more infectious.
In a notice from Hong Kong released last week, officials again urged people to wear face masks in public places if they were at high risk from an infection.
And they urged the public to wear a face mask when traveling on public transportation or staying in crowded areas.
The FDA held a meeting Thursday on whether to update the Covid vaccines, where the strain came up multiple times.
Currently, the latest vaccines target the JN.1 variant and its descendants. Data currently suggests that the LP.8.1 variant is dominant in the US — which is a descendant of JN.1.
At the meeting, CDC and FDA officials told the panel that only one strain — called XFC — has been significantly growing in the US.
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