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Another Covid-19 wave in US ? All you need to know about new variants namely EG.5, FL.1.5.1 and BA.2.86
New Covid causing variants like EG.5, FL.1.5.1 and BA.2.86 are spreading and people have become wary about the virus.
Is Covid-19 coming back as a new wave in the United States? New Covid causing variants like EG.5, FL.1.5.1 and BA.2.86 are spreading and people have become wary about the virus that took thousands of lives across the globe, as a pandemic. However, hospitalisations in the United States, due to these variants are currently lower compared to the previous waves. But cases are on the rise.
According to a report by CBS News, Health officials feel that the forthcoming vaccines will provide protection against these new variants as well.
Most dominant strain in the United States
EG.5 variant is currently the most dominant Covid causing strain in the United States. On August 18, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated EG.5 was responsible for 20.6% of new infections.
FL.1.5.1 variant is the second in line as the most dominant strain in the US. As per CDC, it is responsible 13.3% of the new infections in the country.
Notably, both EG.5 and FL.1.5.1are subvariants of XBB variant. Due to a mutation known as F456L, these seem to be spreading more than other virus variants.
BA.2.86 varitant is currently causing new infections on a small scale. However, due to large number of mutations in some key parts of the virus, makes it highly risky variant.
Symptoms from the new variants
The symptoms are similar to those caused by the earlier variants. On August 9, World Health Organisation(WHO) informed that severity of the disease hasn't been affected much by these new variants.
CBS News report that the symptoms from these new variants have remained largely the same as they have for the past year, with cold and flu-like signs – cough, headache, muscle aches, runny nose and fatigue.
Covid Test on new variants
The Covid detection tests seem to work on these new variants as well.
"Now we have the genome mapped and all that information. We also have the epitopes mapped for all antigen-based tests. We can do computational analytics to see whether or not we think there's going to be any impact on test performance," said Todd Merchak, co-lead of the NIH's RADx Tech initiative at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
Covid vaccines for new variants
Vaccine makers and health officials feel the upcoming new Covid-19 vaccine and booster shots will be effective against these new variants.
"We try to select the antigen that will provide the maximum breadth of immunity so that the protection to people is as wide as possible, anticipating that the virus may evolve between the time when the recommendation is issued and the time when the vaccine is produced," the WHO's Dr. Sylvie Briand told reporters on August 9.
