Time travel is not always exciting adventures, nor does it have a happy ending. In fact, if they are repeated, the effect can be terrifying. In this case, starting information in the spring of 2024 talking about a new variant of the virus that causes covid-19 was still disturbing and now, in summer, the incidence continues to rise; Although the disease has become flu-like and serious cases in the world are almost non-existent, there is a new strain of Sars-CoV-2.
In the last weeks, The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reported a new set of variants detected in wastewater monitoring. This is FLiRT and it threatens to cause a new wave of covid infections, which were already controlled after the increase in cases last December. This KP.3 variant has represented 31.1% of the cases in the North American country between June 9 and 22, making it the dominant strain in that region, surpassing JN.1, which is currently at 4.4%.
This virus has haunted all of humanity for a long time, both in our dreams and when we wake up from them. The entire planet learned its name by heart in the spring of 2020, even though it had first appeared at the end of 2019 in Wuhan (China); Sars-CoV-2 dominated the most worrying news for two full years, mutating many times, although later its danger decreased, and also in space within the news.
However, it is good to remember that in May 2023, the European Union’s European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) stated that Covid-19 was no longer considered a public health emergency at the international level. However, the European agency itself warned that the virus continued to circulate and that it did constitute a potential and severe health risk, which would remove the emergency aspect of this consideration.
How much incidence is there of covid in Spain and what is the predominant variant
The Carlos III Health Institute in its latest report on ‘Sentinel surveillance of Acute Respiratory Infection in Primary Care (IRAs) and in Hospitals (SARI): Flu, covid-19 and RSV’ stands out an incidence of covid-19 in Primary Care of 128.6 cases/100,000 h (117.5 cases/100,000 h in the previous week) and a hospitalization rate for covid of 3.5 cases/100,000 h (4.3 cases/100,000 h in the previous week). In terms of severity, since the beginning of the season, hospitalized cases have presented 30.4% pneumonia, 3.9% admission to the ICU and 8.4% fatality.
The SARS-CoV-2 variant identified in the highest proportion in cases of ARIs in primary care has been BA.2.86, called Pirola, (59.62%), with a predominance of 81.49% since the beginning of the corresponding season to the circulation of lineages and sublineages JN.1. The SARS-CoV-2 variant identified in the highest proportion in SARI cases in hospitals is BA.2.86 (60.47%)with a predominance of 80.98% since the beginning of the season corresponding to the circulation of JN.1 lineages and sublineages.
Symptoms of the new covid variant FLiRT
The recorded symptoms of the FLiRT covid variant so far according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are similar to those of other variants and include fever, cough, congestion, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, chills, breathing problems, fatigue, loss of smell or taste, ‘brain fog’ (feeling less awake or aware) and gastrointestinal symptoms.
