New COVID-19 ‘FLiRT’ Variants Identified—What You Need to Know

Nick Blackmer is a librarian, fact-checker, and researcher with more than 20 years of experience in consumer-facing health and wellness content.The new strains don’t appear to cause more severe illness than existing variants.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to mutate, with the latest crop of variants emerging just in time for summer. Here’s what you need to know about the FLiRT strains, including whether you can expect a COVID wave this summer.The FLiRT group of variants is named after the technical names of its mutations, F456L and R346T. They are part of SARS-CoV-2’sThe new variants descend from JN.1, the primary variant circulating in the U.S. this past winter.In April, the FLiRT strains quickly gained dominance. During the last week of March, only about 4% of COVID cases were caused by KP.

The good news is that the World Health Organization has recommended that future COVID vaccine formulations be based onSo far, the new variants don’t appear to be causing an increase in COVID cases in the U.S.

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