The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that it is now tracking multiple additional COVID-19 variants separately, adding more Omicron descendants to a long list of novel strains that are vying for the national market.
EU.1.1, a strain that was initially identified by experts earlier this year because of its quick climb in various European countries, is one of the new varieties that the CDC is currently monitoring.
The variety, which has a few more alterations to its spike protein that may be promoting its spread, is a more distant descendant of the XBB.1.5 mutant that had risen earlier this year.
According to the CDC, EU.1.1 is now present in 1.7% of cases across the country, but may already account for 8.7% of cases in the region that includes Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
It is too soon to say whether EU.1.1 will cause different or new symptoms in the United States.
Health experts claim that there is little evidence that COVID-19’s effects have changed as a result of earlier versions, despite some anecdotal accounts to the contrary. Reports of shifting symptoms are further complicated by the possibility that changes in the underlying immunity of persons who are infected over time may affect how they are affected by the virus.
According to current estimates, almost all Americans either have antibodies from vaccinations, infections, or a mix of the two. According to data released by the CDC on Thursday, reinfections are now a major cause of hospitalizations and fatalities.
Utah has many incidences of EU.1.1
Utah laboratories have sequenced the most EU.1.1 infections of any state, and the state’s public health laboratory has reported almost 100 cases of EU.1.1 to international virus databases.
In contrast, laboratories in the nearby states of Nevada and Colorado have only recorded single-digit numbers of infections with the EU.1.1 sequence.
Although the nation as a whole is currently hovering around record-low levels seen during the previous spring and summer months, Utah’s overall COVID-19 patterns currently look similar to those of the rest of the country.
A group of academic and government modelers recently predicted that COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths will likely continue to decline in the United States over the course of at least the next two years, with further peaks in the fall and winter unlikely to top prior highs.
According to CDC data, the rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions and ER visits in Utah has mostly reduced or plateaued in recent months. There are also still much fewer reported nursing home cases than during previous winter peaks.
Requests for response from a spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Health and Human Services were not promptly fulfilled.
The majority of SARS-CoV-2 variants countrywide are still categorized by the CDC into one of four strains that make up the XBB family.
The most prevalent is XBB.1.5, which is now expected to account for only 27.0% of infections. Another is the combination of XBB.1.9.2 and XBB.1.9.1, which accounts for 24.4% of cases. With 19.9% of all circulating viruses, XBB.1.16 is the next most prevalent virus. At 10.6% nationwide, XBB.2.3 comes in below them.
The COVID-19 vaccines this autumn should be modified to target the XBB.1.5 variant, the Food and Drug Administration determined earlier this month. Officials claim that because all of these strains—as well as a wide range of their direct descendants—appears to be so closely related, the new vaccinations will increase protection for all of them.
Moderna declared on Thursday that it has already formalized the completion of its application for authority to use its newly redesigned shots for the fall in an emergency.
While the new vaccine is ostensibly intended to target XBB.1.5, the pharmaceutical highlighted research that suggests it would also provide “robust human immune responses” that are successful at defending against XBB.1.5’s relatives XBB.1.16 and XBB.2.3.
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