With the beginning of a new year, the CDC is warning Americans of a new Covid variant that is rapidly spreading across the country for a few weeks.
The XBB.1.5. accounts currently for nearly 41 percent of coronavirus cases in the US. Just a week ago, it was behind 21 percent of confirmed cases.
Health officials added that more than 70 percent of Covid cases reported from New York through Maine were positively linked to the XBB.1.5. variant.
“We're projecting that it's going to be the dominant variant in the Northeast region of the country and that it's going to increase in all regions of the country,” CDC's director of the coronavirus division Dr. Barbara Mahon said.
Virologist Andrew Pekosz added that the new strain is highly immune evasive since it has an additional mutation when it comes to better binding to cells.
“The virus needs to bind tightly to cells to be more efficient at getting in and that could help the virus be a little bit more efficient at infecting people.”
