While symptoms and severity seem to be about the same as previous COVID strains, the new FLiRT variants appear to be more transmissible
A new family of COVID variants nicknamed “FLiRT” is spreading across the country, as vaccination rates remain concerningly low for some public health experts., said infectious disease expert Dr. Robert Murphy.
One FLiRT variant, KP.2, is estimated to account for roughly a quarter of recent COVID cases, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from late April. FLiRT has made itself known in Los Angeles County, but hasn’t made a lot of noise just yet. But officials expect to see the numbers grow.
In the latest complete data from L.A. County, KP.2 made up 5% of reported cases between March 31 and April 13. The Long Beach Health Department has identified two COVID-19 cases as KP.2 variant strains with the first reported on April 16. “Because of significantly reduced PCR testing, it is generally unreliable to draw conclusions about proportions of variants accurately at a city or county level,” said Goh in a statement.“For people who have fragile immune systems, they should take precautions around large crowds and places where they can be exposed,” said Dr. Elizabeth McNally, director of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Center for Genetic Medicine.
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