So far there are no symptoms that the new LB. 1 variant is causing more severe illness in COVID-19 patients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, as infections began to rise with this summer’s wave across the country.
The LB. 1 variant recently accounts for 17. 5% of new COVID cases, the CDC predicted Friday, and could possibly be on track to overtake its sister, the KP. 3 variant, which has also surged in recent weeks. .
“Lately there is no evidence that KP. 3 or LB. 1 cause more severe disease. CDC will continue to track SARS-CoV-2 variants and pictures to better understand the potential impact on the public,” CDC spokesperson David said. Daigle. A statement.
The reason for any possible change in symptoms or disease severity caused by new variants is complex and is affected by people’s underlying immunity resulting from a combination of infections and vaccines beyond, as well as changes in the virus itself.
The CDC has said in the past that it is closely monitoring the consequences of newer strains, based largely on insights and studies conducted in hospitals, comparing trends in where new variants first emerged.
Only a fraction of facilities still report numbers on hospitalizations and intensive care admissions to the CDC, after a pandemic-era requirement expired earlier this year. A proposal from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to make data reporting part of the regime’s requirements is expected to take effect until October.
Instead, the company has turned to other sources, such as a network of hospitals that continue to report more detailed insights about patients, as well as emergency room visits, to track the virus.
In California, one of the states that saw virus trends rise earlier this summer in wastewater to “high” levels, data from CDC COVID-NET shows hospitalizations were close to levels seen since February.
The most recent data from California’s emergency rooms also shows that COVID-19 patient rates have reached levels seen since February.
But the KP. 3 variant, not LB. 1, accounted for the largest proportion of cases in this first wave, estimates from the CDC and the California Department of Health suggest.
Only 7. 8% of cases in HHS Region 9, which covers California and some other western states, are expected to come from the LB. 1 variant on June 8.
In contrast, the prevalence of LB. 1 appears to be higher in HHS Region 2, which includes New York and New Jersey. As of June 8, an estimated 30. 9% of instances were made through LB. 1.
Compared to highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 variants that emerged before the pandemic, experts say LB. 1’s adjustments are relatively small compared to its parent JN. 1 variant, which dominated last winter’s surge. .
LB.1 is also closely related to KP.3, which is also a descendant of the JN.1 variant. Unlike KP.3, LB.1 has a key mutation that scientists call S:S31del that looks to be helping it spread faster.
This month’s research by Japanese scientists, which was published as a preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that this mutation appeared to be more contagious and better able to evade the immune formula.