Urgent warning issued over a new Covid variant that is spreading in Australia

Experts have issued an urgent warning about a highly contagious new coronavirus variant spreading rapidly during Australia’s winter season.

The new coronavirus strain, LB.1, follows the JN.1 variant and its subvariants KP.2 and KP.3, which were responsible for most new infections between May 7 and June 11.

LB.1 is similar to the FLiRT variant, both of which are Omicron subvariants that began spreading in Australia in April, however, LB.1 has additional mutations compared to FLiRT.

Symptoms of the LB.1 strain include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting and diarrhoea.

Infectious disease specialist at the University of Queensland Pail Griffin said the variant was also ‘a bit more’ more transmissible than its previous counterparts.

‘Whenever the spike protein changes, it means that our protection from past infection or vaccination is reduced, and therefore, they become a bit more transmissible,’ Mr Griffin told SBS News.

Chair of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of South Australia Professor Adrian Esterman also confirmed the new strain was highly contagious.

‘Although LB.1 is almost certainly more transmissible than KP.2, it doesn’t appear to be outperforming KP.3 and its descendants,’ Professor Esterman said.

‘It’s problematic because it’s overlapping significantly with our flu season. And we’ve also still got other things like mycoplasma and whooping cough going around, so it does mean there’s lots of people with respiratory infections at the moment.’ 

Symptoms of the LB.1 strain include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting and diarrhoea

There is no conclusive information yet about whether LB.1 is more severe than other variants.

However, a person’s overall health and immunity are major factors in determining the severity of the infection.

Australia’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System found Covid hospital admissions were declining across the country. On July 9, the seven-day average was 53, down from 107 a month prior.

However, the LB.1 strain has caused a surge in hospitalisations in the United States, with emergency room visits up more than 23 per cent on July 9, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Australians are being urged to wear a mask, keep away from people who are sick and get the latest Covid vaccine to help prevent catching the new strain.

Infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Doctor Amesh A. Adalja explained the current vaccine is protective against severe disease.

‘The current vaccine is not very effective at durable protection against infection — and that has been the case for some time — with the current slew of variants, though it is protective against severe disease.’