Medical experts say the new COVID-19 mutation dubbed “kraken” is the most contagious subvariant of the virus to emerge since the pandemic began — and it’s becoming the dominant strain in the United States.
As cases of this latest subvariant, known as XBB.1.5, surge across the northeastern section of the nation, physicians are urging residents to get their booster shots and stock up on COVID tests, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The Biden administration on Wednesday extended the COVID-19 public health emergency another 90 days, amid the spread of this highly infectious subvariant; the White House has renewed the COVID emergency declaration every 90 days since January 2020.
XBB.1.5 is a fusion of two existing subvariants of the omicron variant of the virus, the Tribune added quoting a local expert. The name “kraken” was coined by a Canadian biology professor, reportedly named after a sea monster from Scandinavian folklore.
Cases of XBB.1.5 spiked following the holidays, primarily in Northeastern states, where the CDC estimates the substrain accounts for more than 70% of all COVID cases.
“It went from 4% of sequences to 40% in just a few weeks,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 response coordinator, on Twitter last week. “That’s a stunning increase.”
But he added that all evidence suggests that COVID tests work to detect the latest subvariant and that COVID treatments like Paxlovid and molnupiravir “should work fine based on what we know.”
This comes as the nation faces a “tripledemic” this winter season, as rising rates of flu, RSV and COVID collide at the same time.
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