New Covid variants Nimbus and Stratus are soaring… and there are unusual symptoms
A croaky voice and a sharp, ‘razor blade’ sore throat are emerging as tell-tale signs of the latest Covid variants now sweeping the US and UK.
The strains, XFB, dubbed Stratus, and NB.1.8.1, known as Nimbus, are fueling a surge in infections, with cases spiking specifically in the northeast last month in the US and doubling in the UK since August.
In the US, nationwide Covid wastewater levels, used to measure the community spread of a virus, are ‘moderate,’ according to the CDC, but four states are recording ‘very high’ levels and levels in the northeast region are on the rise.
In the UK, the Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said positivity had risen from 7.6 to 8.4 percent in just a week, while Covid hospital admissions increased from two to 2.73 per 100,000.
Dr Aaron Glatt, an infectious disease expert from Mount Sinai hospital in New York, told Today.com that patients were complaining of ‘severe pain, as if their throat is covered with razor blades’.
He added: ‘While not specific to Covid-19, this expression has been used to describe sore throat symptoms in some patients with the most recent Covid-19 variant.’
In the UK, health officials have launched a winter vaccination drive, urging millions to come forward for Covid and flu vaccines as hospitalizations creep up.
But in the US, experts warn that confusion over who is eligible for the Covid vaccine could lead to declining vaccination rates and an increase in Covid cases. Officials placed more restrictions on Covid vaccines, with a CDC vaccine panel voting against recommending the shots in favor of ‘individual decision-making.’
Some have reported a sharp, razor-like sore throat is a distinct sign you’re infected with one of the new Covid variants, amid a rise in cases
The new strains can also cause more familiar Covid complaints such as headaches, coughing, fatigue and a runny or blocked nose.
However, Dr Laura Malone, director of the Pediatric Post-Covid-19 Rehabilitation Clinic at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, told The New York Times just because an infection is mild or you recover well, doesn’t mean that lasting effects can’t happen, including long Covid.
‘Just because you got through your first infection and didn’t develop long Covid, it’s not that you are completely out of the woods,’ she said.
The CDC says that it receives little data on variants from the states every year, leading it to have ‘low confidence’ in the estimates, but it warns that the variant is likely causing an increasing proportion of infections.
The agency’s wastewater estimates are based on reports from hundreds of sites across the US that analyze the water for signs of Covid.
An increase or decrease indicates more or fewer people, respectively, are shedding the virus, suggesting infections are rising or falling.
XFG was first detected in January in Southeast Asia and was found in the US two months later.
In May, it accounted for just three percent of Covid infections in the US. But as of September 9, it made up 80 percent of US Covid cases.
The above map shows Covid wastewater levels in the US
The UKHSA advises anyone with symptoms to stay at home if possible and avoid contact with vulnerable people. Those who must go out are urged to wear a face covering.
It advised: ‘If you have symptoms of a respiratory infection, such as Covid-19, and you have a high temperature or do not feel well enough to go to work or carry out normal activities, you should avoid contact with vulnerable people and stay at home if possible.’
People over 75, those with weakened immune systems and care home residents are eligible for the winter Covid booster, available on the NHS app, online, or at walk-in centers.
Pregnant women and children are also invited for vaccination, and toddlers can this year get a flu spray at community pharmacies.
The rise in cases comes just days after a controversial South Korean study claimed Covid vaccines ‘might raise the risk of cancer’.
Published in Biomarker Research, it failed to explain how the jabs could trigger the disease.
Experts dismissed the findings as ‘superficially alarming’, warning the conclusions were hugely overblown. Scientists have repeatedly said there is no credible evidence that Covid vaccines interfere with tumor suppressors or fuel cancer growth.
It follows Reform UK distancing itself from cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, an adviser to US presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr, after he suggested at the party’s conference that Covid vaccines were linked to the cancers of the King and Princess of Wales.
