COVID Variant "Arcturus" Threatens To Spread Globally

A new Omicron spawn fueling a surge of cases in India—considered the most transmissible COVID variant yet—has reached reportable levels in the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, Erin Prater reported for Fortune.

Photo Insert: The variant, XBB.1.16, dubbed “Arcturus” by variant trackers, is estimated to be behind 7% of COVID cases in the country this week.

The variant, XBB.1.16, dubbed “Arcturus” by variant trackers, is estimated to be behind 7% of COVID cases in the country this week, according to the CDC’s Nowcast, a viral forecast released each Friday by the national public health agency.

The variant doesn’t cause more severe disease, said a COVID situation report released Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Writing for The Telegraph, Samuel Lovett reported that Japanese researchers led by Prof. Kei Sato said that the variant emerged and was detected in various countries at the end of March 2023.

It’s not yet clear where Arcturus originated from, but the majority of sequences collected on the virus so far have come from India, according to Dr, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID.

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