A new map has revealed where Covid cases are surging in the US, as fears mount over a fast-spreading new variant.
The strain XFG, also known as Stratus, has become dominant nationwide and in every region except the South since its first appearance in March.
CDC figures tracking Covid levels in wastewater show the virus was at ‘moderate’ levels nationwide in the week to September 20, the latest date available, down slightly on the previous week when cases were ‘high’ overall.
The agency said cases have surged to ‘very high’ in Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada and Utah, and ‘high’ in 15 states, mostly across the Midwest and Northeast.
Only two states, Michigan and Missouri, were still recording ‘very low’ levels of the virus in the latest figures.
Many patients recently infected by Covid are reporting suffering from a painful sore throat that feels like a ‘razor-blade,’ which has been dubbed a symptom of this new mutant strain.
Dr Todd Ellerin, an infectious disease specialist at Harvard University, told the Daily Mail: ‘This is not the first time a sore throat has been associated with a Covid infection; it has been a symptom of the infection since the beginning.’
Symptoms are similar to previous variants, with major signs including fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, congestion, runny nose, loss of taste or smell, fatigue, body aches, headache, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
CDC data is based on analyzing wastewater for traces of the virus collected from more than 100 sites across the US.
The 15 states with high levels of Covid were: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Washington.
There were also four states, including Arizona, Delaware, Montana and New York, where cases detected in wastewater had risen compared to the previous week.
The uptick comes amid a surge in Covid infections in the UK and as the US heads into the fall and winter months when respiratory virus cases surge.
‘What we see is that virus activity in the US and Europe tends to track each other, said Dr Ellerin, who also works at South Shore Hospital in Massachusetts.
‘So, what we see weeks or months before in Europe, we then see in the US. Europe is something of a bellwether for what’s coming here.’
He added that the US experienced a ‘very mild, very mild’ summer of Covid.
‘It’s not clear whether that means we could be in for more Covid this year, although it’s highly unlikely that the virus will cause the same disruption as it did in the early days of the pandemic,’ Dr Ellerin continued.
The above shows estimates of the proportion of cases currently triggered by the XFG variant, showing it is thought to be behind more than eight in ten new Covid infections
The Stratus variant emerged in South East Asia in early January, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and was detected in the US two months later.
In May, it accounted for just three percent of Covid infections nationwide. But, as of September 27, Stratus made up an estimated 85 percent of all cases.
Scientists said the strain is more infectious than previous variants of the virus, but it does not appear to be more likely to cause severe infections or death.
The XFG variant is a hybrid of two existing Omicron strains, LF.7 and LP.8.1.2, meaning it carries genetic material from both variants, allowing it to more easily bind to cells in the body and trigger infection than previous variants.
Nationwide, wastewater surveillance showed Covid cases were at ‘moderate’ levels, although officials say this is still an early estimate and that they are waiting on further data to be reported, which could raise the figure.
Twenty-two states also saw their cases fall compared to the previous week. These were: Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The US Covid hospitalization rate was 2.6 people per 100,000 individuals in the week to September 6, the latest available, the highest level since February this year, but below the peak over the year, also in February, of 4.2 per 100,000.
Data for the week to September 27 showed 1.2 per 100,000 patients were suffering from Covid, down from 2.2 the week before, although experts said the data was incomplete.
Data for the week to September 27 showed 1.2 per 100,000 hospitalized patients were suffering from Covid, down from 2.2 the week before, although experts said the data was incomplete.
Health officials have warned the XFG Covid variant is surging in the US (stock image)
About 0.8 percent of all death certificates filed mentioned Covid in the week to September 20, also the latest available, the same as the previous week, also at 0.8 percent.
Both figures are markedly below those in the early days of the pandemic, when tens of thousands were being hospitalized and thousands were dying daily.
Earlier this month, five Democrat-run states issued their own Covid vaccine guidance after Florida said it would ban all vaccine mandates.
The governors of California, Oregon and Washington state announced last month that they had formed the West Coast Health Alliance in an effort to ‘ensure residents remain protected by science, not politics.’
The group plans to review scientific data and make vaccine recommendations for residents in these states that are independent from federal guidelines.
These will sidestep those enacted by the Trump administration and vaccine skeptic Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, including recent restrictions on the Covid shot.
It’s the first blue-state public health partnership to directly push back against the administration’s policies.
In mid-September, seven states in the North-east, including New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, also formed their own public health coalition that would make vaccine recommendations.
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