{"id":12273,"date":"2025-05-27T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=12273"},"modified":"2025-05-27T16:14:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T20:14:21","slug":"highly-infectious-new-covid-strain-from-china-has-led-to-spike-in-hospitalizations-is-spreading-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=12273","title":{"rendered":"Highly infectious new COVID strain from China has led to spike in hospitalizations & is spreading in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

US News<\/a>, Ronny Reyes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new, highly infectious COVID-19<\/a> strain that has left to a spike in hospitalizations in China has now been detected in the US, including cases in New York City, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new NB.1.81 variant was first detected in the US in late March and early April among international travelers arriving at airports in California, Washington State, Virginia and New York City<\/a>, with additional cases reported in Ohio, Rhode Island and Hawaii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CDC has said there are too few cases in the US to be properly tracked in the agency\u2019s variant estimates, but experts are warning that the virus\u2019 run in China<\/a> shows it spreads more quickly than other dominant strains of the respiratory infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong authorities say COVID-19 cases have spiked to the worst levels in at least a year after officials announced a \u201csignificant increase\u201d in emergency room visits and hospitalizations in the last month due to the variant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"COVID-19<\/a>
COVID-19 and its strains have killed more than 1.2 million people in the US since it first appeared in 2020.CDC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In mainland China, the portion of patients going to the ER with COVID has more than doubled in the last month \u2014 from 7.5% to more than 16%, public health authorities said. The portion of people in the hospital for COVID in China also doubled, to more than 6%, according to the state-run China Daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the stats, the Beijing-controlled government in Hong Kong downplayed the variant, saying it does not appear to be more dangerous than previous variants.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re seeing in China, Hong Kong and some other areas where this variant has really surged, is an increase in hospitalization,\u201d Dr. Amy Edwards, a professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University\u2019s medical school, told CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CDC\u2019s airport tests revealed the extent of the virus\u2019 spread as the travelers who were infected with the variant traveled through China, Japan, South Korea, France, Thailand, the Netherlands, Spain, Vietnam and Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like other forms of COVID-19, the variant can cause coughing, a sore throat, fever and fatigue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subhash Verma, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Nevada, however, noted that the new variant \u201cappears to have a growth advantage, suggesting it may spread more easily.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn other words, it is more transmissible,\u201d she told CBS news<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Verma and Edwards said that the strain does not appear to be more severe \u2014 at least so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Edwin Tsui, the head of Hong Kong\u2019s Centre for Health Protection (CHP), said that the new variant \u201cshould not be taken lightly,\u201d warning Chinese health officials and others around the world that evidence suggests the virus may have evolved to even further evade the protections of the COVID vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe CHP will continue to closely monitor the situation of the variant strains in accordance with the World Health Organization\u2019s recommendation, and be cautious of the possible emergence of more virulent or vaccine-mismatched strains of the virus in the future,\u201d\u00a0he said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The warning comes as the Trump administration announced a plan to limit the annual booster vaccines<\/a> to seniors and other high-risk groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that it will no longer recommend that healthy children and pregnant women receive the COVID-19 jab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US News, Ronny Reyes A new, highly infectious COVID-19 strain that has left to a spike in hospitalizations in China has now been detected in the US, including cases in New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1236,769,169,952,561,590],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bnt162b2","category-cough","category-fatigure","category-sore-throat","category-symptoms-covid-19","category-transmission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12275,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12273\/revisions\/12275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}