A new, highly infectious COVID-19 strain that has led to a spike in hospitalisation in China has now been detected in the US, including cases in New York City, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new NB.1.81 variant was first detected in the US in late March and early April among international travellers arriving at airports in California, Washington State, Virginia and New York City, with additional cases reported in Ohio, Rhode Island and Hawaii.
The CDC has said there are too few cases in the US to be properly tracked in the agency’s variant estimates, but experts are warning that the virus’ run in China shows it spreads more quickly than other dominant strains of the respiratory infection.
Experts have been closely tracking the NB.1.8.1 variant after it became the dominant strain in China this year, with cases surging all across Asia.
There have been reports of it driving an increase in hospitalisations in Western Australia.
Hong Kong authorities say COVID-19 cases have spiked to the worst levels in at least a year after officials announced a “significant increase” in emergency room visits and hospitalisation in the last month due to the variant.
A new strain of Covid has been detected in the US. Picture: NIAID/Alamy
That included 81 severe cases in the past four weeks, including 30 deaths. The vast majority of the cases were in adults 65 and up.
In mainland China, the portion of patients going to the ER with Covid has more than doubled in the last month — from 7.5 per cent to more than 16 per cent, public health authorities said. The portion of people in the hospital for Covid in China also doubled, to more than six per cent, according to the state-run China Daily.
