While people are saying their goodbyes to summer, the new surge of the COVID-19 cases is on the rise in the United States due to the new FLirT variant. This increase, the biggest since January, has raised eyebrows among public health officials and researchers who are tracking the numbers through wastewater surveillance, an early sign of infection and one of the most valuable methods.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the KP. 3. 1. 1 strain, that forms part of the FLirT variant, now contributes to nearly 37 percent of cases; with its relation, KP coming in second. 3 at 17%. The numbers point out that the virus undergoes mutation with more than 26 strains of the original virus. Nevertheless, symptoms related to FLirT are comparatively less severe; they range from fever, coughing, and feeling weary, as well as the existence of the absence of smell or taste.
Wastewater testing, which acts as an early indicator of community viral presence across the United States indicates that COVID-19 activity is increasing in more than half of the states by 32 and the western and the southern regions are most affected. For the following year, the CDC predicts that in 25 states, cases are set to rise while in others cases shall remain static or reduce. Such statistics prove that the virus continues to exist and makes health officers to continue encouraging people to be more careful.
As the new FLirT variant becomes notorious, the nation is awoken with the reality that COVID-19 is now an endemic disease and still has the ability to transform from one form to another which demands stepped-up public health interventions.