New COVID-19 variant spreads in late spring

A new variant of COVID-19 is spreading in late spring. Kp2, also known by the nickname FLiRT, evolved from the Omicron variant. This particular strain now accounts for nearly a third of cases in the United States, according to the CDC.

Keeley Morris, senior epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health, says the increase in cases is nothing new.

“Every time these new variants appear, we are always a little worried about a possible increase in severity, as has happened in the past. But right now, for these variants, we have no indication that they are serious,” Morris said. “Typically what happens is they’re just more immune-invasive. We’re starting to see an increase in cases because people aren’t getting the underlying protection that they get from being vaccinated. This is a common occurrence for all viruses and we are now getting used to it for COVID-19.

Morris also says people over 65 or immunocompromised should receive a second dose of the vaccine released in September, at least four months after their previous dose.

“We started targeting particular variants with the fall vaccines that come out every year. This makes them particularly effective against any circulating variants,” Morris said. “We want to keep an eye on what is currently circulating in the community when we make vaccination decisions. But if people look back, you’ll see that this time last year, other variants were popping up. So this is not uncommon at this time of year.

Morris says it’s difficult to know precisely how many people in Minnesota might have these variants. Although the Minnesota Department of Health is monitoring the proportion of viral sequences belonging to the new emerging variants. At the time of this publication, Morris reports that approximately 15% of our sequenced specimens belong to FLiRT variants.

For more information on the situation with the COVID-19 variant, you can read more here. For other COVID-19 stories, you can read more here.