Although COVID-19 transmission remains low in the US, health experts are delivered about the potential for a large summer wave, because two factors seem to be for a collision course: a silence in infection activity that suggests that protective reactions have probably been purchased in the population, and a new SARS-COV-2 variant with a respect with an infectious by respect with a respect from other variants.
The new variant is called NB.1.8.1. Just like all other currently circulating variants, it is a descendant of Omicron. In particular, NB.1.8.1 is derived from the recombinant variant XDV.1.5.1. In comparison with the reigning Omicron variants JN.1 and LP.8.1, the new variant has a few mutations that can help it to bind to human cells more easily and to avoid some protective immune response.
On 23 May, the World Health Organization NB.1.8.1 designated a “variant under monitoring”, which means that early signals indicate that it has an advantage over other variants, but the impact on populations is not yet clear. In recent weeks, parts of Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, have experienced an increase in infections and hospital admissions related to the spread of NB.1.8.1. Fortunately, the variant does not seem to cause more serious disease and it is expected that the current vaccines will remain effective.
Yet it seems to win quickly in the US, so that the worries are fed that it can also cause an increase here. In the latest tracking data of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NB.1.8.1 is estimated to be good in the US. That is an increase of 15 percent two weeks ago. NB.1.8.1 is now ready to catch up with LP.8.1, which makes an estimated 38 percent of the cases.
It is important to note that those estimates are based on limited data, so the CDC warns that there are great possible achievements for the actual relationships of the variants. For NB.1.81 the potential percentage varies from 13 percent to 68 percent, while LP.8.1's are 23 percent to 57 percent.
