A new Covid variant that is spreading fast through the US may become dominant across the world in the coming weeks, experts have warned.
JN.1 has become the quickest-spreading strain in the US and is now responsible for around 20 percent of coronavirus infections in the country, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It is tipped to account for at least half of new cases before the end of December, and soon, this pattern could be mirrored elsewhere just in time for the festive period.
Dr Ryan Gregory, from the University of Guelph, has been tracking the evolution of Covid variants.
He told CNN: “It’s already pretty clear that it is highly competitive with existing XBB variants and looks like it’s on track to become the next sort of globally dominant group of variants.”
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Cases across Europe are already rising, including in France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands.
It’s also surging rapidly in Asia, Canada and Australia.
Professor Locker, a virologist at the Pirbright Institute, told Sky News: “We’re going to see a fairly large rise in cases this winter.
“Not because JN.1 is more problematic, infectious or severe, but because we’re losing our defences – protections afforded by our last set of boosters and our immunity is waning.”
But the World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to label JN.1 a variant of concern.
If it did, it would mean that the variant has the potential to be severe and reduce vaccine effectiveness.
Scientists first raised the alarm over JN.1 this summer as it is closely linked to BA.2.86, also known as Pirola.
They feared that this form of the virus had so many mutations to its spike protein, 30, that it may have been able to evade vaccines and antibodies. But this did not appear to happen.
Experts have also said that health authorities should be able to get a handle on the newly emerging subvariant with the right precautionary measures.
Prof Eric Topol, executive vice president of Scripps Research, told Medscape: “A significant wave [of JN.1] has started here and could be blunted with a high booster rate and mitigation measures.”
But last month, the CDC released figures suggesting vaccine uptake was not as high as some may have hoped.
As of November 18, under a fifth of American adults had received a booster shot, with just 15 percent saying they were planning on receiving one.
It has also been a challenge for public health authorities to tailor vaccines to target the latest variants of Covid, which constantly evolve.
An update COVID-19 vaccine that was dished out over the fall was based on the XBB.1.5 variant. it was made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax.
Johns Hopkins Medicine advises that everyone aged 5 and above receive one shot of the updated vaccine.
Only people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may require than one jab.
According to the CDCs Covid Data tracker, 23,432 people in the US were admitted to hospital with Covid between December 3 and December 9.
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