Financial Services Association, May 10 (Editor: Huang Junzhi) The term “coronavirus” seems to have gradually faded out of people's sight. People are gradually beginning to take off their masks, stop getting vaccinated, and many governments have canceled comprehensive surveillance. However, in reality, the virus continues to mutate and spread.

According to recently updated data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the main variant spreading in the US today is the “FlirT” family headed by KP.2: KP.2 accounts for 25%. As early as April, medical expert Eric Topol warned that Flirt, represented by KP.2, has a more obvious transmission advantage and could trigger a new wave of COVID-19.

According to information, KP.2 is a descendant of the JN.1 variant, sometimes called the “Flirt” variant, named because of its mutated location in the spike protein. Other Flirt variants, including KP.1.1, are also popular in the US, but they aren't as common as KP.2. “FLirt” was first discovered in the US sewer system, but the exact origin is unknown.

Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick in the UK, said, “We are worried that KP.2 will cause a wave of infections in the summer. Early evidence suggests that KP.2 appears to be more infectious than the previous substrain, but it's still too early to tell if it's more dangerous. We should monitor the spread of this sublineage, but given that there aren't many tests right now, this is difficult.”

The coronavirus has not dissipated

The constant emergence of new variants seems to be a reminder that COVID-19 will never go away and that people will continue to suffer. Fortunately, until now, these variants have not been shown to cause more serious diseases, and the vaccine is still effective.

The number of weekly hospitalizations is at its lowest level since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest available data. However, starting May 1, US hospitals will no longer be required to report data on the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19, hospital capacity, or hospital occupancy rate data to the federal government.

Infectious disease expert William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said that compared to past virus mutations, the new variants are not fundamentally different. They are all subvariants of constituents and contain spike protein mutations, making them more infectious.

“We are in the genomic era, and several subvariants are already dominating. They're highly infectious, but they don't seem to cause more serious diseases,” he said.

Schaffner also said that spike protein mutations mean that vaccines and previously obtained immunity may not fully protect a person as well as earlier strains, but laboratory tests have shown that there is still substantial protection against serious diseases.

“We now consider it one of the major seasonal severe respiratory infections. It's local now, and we're all learning how to handle it in a conventional way. It (the coronavirus) won't go away,” he added.