Feeling Hoarse? You Might Have the New ‘Stratus’ Covid Variant

Another NEW covid variant is currently rapidly gaining a foothold. Known officially as XFG—or informally as “Stratus”—it has been declared a “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organization (WHO), and is expected to circulate alongside the now dominant Nimbus variant throughout the northern hemisphere summer. The risk to public health is low, the WHO has said. Infections are characterized by a particular symptom: hoarseness.

Stratus is a combination of the LF.7 and LP.8.1.2 lineages of the virus, and when comparing Stratus to the previously dominant JN1 variant, “distinct mutational profiles in the spike protein can be identified,” the WHO has said. “Spike mutations at amino acids 478 and 487 enhance antibody avoidance”—meaning, in other words, the variant may be more adept at evading our immune defenses.

Stratus has been dominant in India throughout the spring, and has now started to spread at large across the world. Gisaid, a global initiative that tracks the spread of viral variants, reported that 22.7 percent of Covid samples submitted to it during the last week of May were Stratus, up from 7.4 percent four weeks earlier. These samples came from 38 different countries.

Available data doesn’t suggest that the variant causes more severe disease or deaths than others in circulation, though doctors in India have noted that hoarseness is a common symptom. Patients have also reported suffering a dry cough and sore throat, in addition to the more common Covid symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, and fatigue.

“The currently approved Covid-19 vaccines are expected to remain effective against this variant against symptomatic and severe disease,” the WHO stated in its risk assessment. The organization will continue to regularly assess the impact of this and other variants on the efficacy of vaccines, to guide decisions on vaccine updates.

This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.