At least one American has died from Covid variant Arcturus, sources say

One in ten Americans who catch Covid are now being infected with the new variant Arcturus, data shows.

DailyMail.com understands that some patients who caught the XBB.1.16 strain — an off-shoot of Omicron — have died, though US health officials are not directly monitoring variant-specific deaths.

Arcturus, which is thought to be the most infectious and vaccine-resistant version of the virus yet, has already spread to 31 states, with California, New Jersey and New York emerging as hotspots.

There is no evidence the new variant causes more severe illness but doctors in India claim it is causing a new and unusual symptom – itchy eyes.

The mutant strain has been detected officially 446 times in the US, although the actual number will be far higher than that because only a fraction of positive swabs are analyzed for variants.

A health source suggested to this website that the virus was so prevalent it was bound to be killing patients already.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates it was behind 9.6 percent of all cases as of the 22 April. 

This was up 50 percent from just a week ago, when modelling suggested it was behind about six percent of cases.

The estimate is based on variant tracking data submitted from across the US along with data suggesting how fast each strain is growing in the country.

It is also now the second most common variant nationwide, behind another strain of Omicron dubbed ‘Kraken’.

California is the national hotspot, with 105 cases now confirmed there — double the number nearly two weeks ago.

Rounding out the top three are New Jersey (56 cases) and New York (45). 

The states where it has been detected are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

India is yet to announce any deaths from the variant, but the strain has sent cases in the country exploding 90-fold since it first took off two months ago.

The situation is so bad that some states are now being forced to bring back mandatory Covid face mask restrictions.

Deaths in the country from Covid have risen by about a quarter in a week to an average of 21 fatalities per day, but it is not clear whether these involve Arcturus.

The CDC told DailyMail.com: ‘In the United States, XBB.1.16 is currently responsible for only a small number of Covid cases, but reports suggest that XBB.1.16 may be causing an increase in Covid cases in India, Singapore and Brunei.

‘XBB.1.16 has genetic changes that may give it growth advantages over other lineages.

‘[But] there is no evidence currently indicating that XBB.1.16 causes more severe disease or decreased vaccine efficacy.’

Doctors have also suggested that the mutant variant is causing conjunctivitis, or itchy eyes, in children that it infects.

India now accounts for 61 percent of all recorded cases of XBB.1.16, British officials have warned. The dominant variant in the country, between March 20 and April 3, over two-thirds (68 percent) of all cases logged was Arcturus

While the rapid rise in Covid cases is of some concern, it is still far below the devastating wave the country experienced in 2021 from the Delta variant 

Typically Covid symptoms are known to include a high fever, cough, cold and loss of the sense of taste or smell.

But Vipin Vashishtha, consultant paediatrician at the Mangla Hospital and Research Centre and former official at the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, revealed symptoms affecting children’s eyes have seen a sudden surge.

‘An infantile phenotype seems emerging,’ he wrote on Twitter.

He is now seeing a rise in cases involving ‘itchy’ conjunctivitis or ‘sticky eyes’, a symptom he had not witnessed during earlier Covid waves.

Richard Reithinger, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the nonprofit research institute RTI International, based in the US, also told US magazine Fortune that he had heard such reports.

But it’s ‘probably too early to tell’ if the virus’s symptom set has truly shifted, he noted.

Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology, added there are currently ‘lots of anecdotals of paediatric conjunctivitis in India’.