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Five Britons have already died from Arcturus – the new strain of Covid that is wreaking havoc across India.
The variant, believed to be the most contagious yet, is wreaking havoc in India, where cases have exploded 90 times since it first hit two months ago.
Some of the hardest-hit countries have already reinstated mandatory face masks to control its rapid spread.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) chiefs have already detected 135 symptomatic cases of Omicron, which first arrived in Britain in mid-February.
Only one area, the Northeast, you haven’t seen yet.
Other sub-variants of Omicron include Kraken (XBB.1.5) and Orthrus (CH.1.1). For now, Kraken remains the dominant strain in the UK, as of April 14, causing 44 per cent of cases, while Omicron accounts for 8 per cent and Arcturus, 2.3 per cent, according to the UKHSA.
UKHSA officials have warned that India now accounts for 61 per cent of all registered cases of XBB.1.16. The predominant form in the country was that, between March 20 and April 3, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of all registered cases were of the Arcturus strain. Separate figures from the Our World in Data platform run by the University of Oxford show the number of new daily cases reached 9,526 six days earlier on April 18, up from 625 recorded one month earlier.
While the rapid rise in Covid cases is of some concern, it still falls far short of the devastating wave the country experienced in 2021 from the delta variant.
Five deaths were included in the cases.
But the death toll – based on genetic monitoring – will be a much lower number because only a small fraction of the samples are now being rigorously tested.
Monitoring data shows that the strain, which is scientifically called XBB.1.16, makes up roughly 2.3 percent of all new cases.
Separate unofficial figures suggest around 65,000 Britons are infected every day.
UKHSA officials stated that Arcturus, nicknamed by various online trackers, was among the UK’s “most competitive” Covid strains.
They said officials at the state health agency expected one strain to become dominant in the coming weeks.
“However, XBB.1.16 sample numbers are very low, and results may change as more data become available,” they note.
Leading experts insist there is no evidence stress is more severe than other prevalent strains.
At present, the disease caused by the coronavirus is very similar to the flu, unlike the early days of the pandemic.
But XBB.1.16 has three additional mutations on the spike protein, which may help it evade the body’s natural defences.
But the UKHSA said it was ‘unclear’ whether the variant would spark a new wave in the UK, which has different levels of immunity than India.
India is now recording nearly 10,000 Covid cases every day.
This is higher than 160 in late February, when the variable started to increase.
Data shows that they make up two-thirds of all cases in the country.
Frontline doctors in India claim to have seen a rise in children with conjunctivitis, which suggests that Arcturus may cause different symptoms to other variants.
The strain was first identified in January and monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO) since the end of March.
It has now been seen in 34 countries, including the United States, Singapore, Australia and Canada.
Other sub-variants of Omicron include Kraken (XBB.1.5) and Orthrus (CH.1.1).
Currently, Kraken remains dominant in the UK, causing 44 per cent of all cases, while Omicron accounts for 8 per cent.
Symptoms of COVID-19 are usually known to include a high fever, cough, cold, and loss of taste or smell. But Vipin Vashishtha, a consultant pediatrician at Mangla Hospital and Research Center and former official of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, revealed earlier this month that symptoms affecting children’s eyes have seen a surge. He said he is now seeing a rise in cases of ‘itchy’ conjunctivitis or ‘sticky eyes’, a symptom he had not seen during previous waves of Covid.
A separate Covid surveillance project, run by health tech company ZOE, found that Covid rates have fallen since the end of March
It expects around 1.05 million people in the UK to have symptoms of Covid as of yesterday, down nearly 400,000 from the 1.49 million reported at the end of March. The current levels match those detected in early February, when cases were falling from a winter peak of around 1.7 million, according to ZOE data. Also, about 65,360 cases were recorded yesterday
Despite concerns that cases may soon rise, rates appear to have fallen over the past two weeks.
Health tech company ZOE, which has implemented its daily Covid monitoring project in contrast to the government, expects about 1.05 million people In the UK was sick with covid yesterday.
This is down nearly 400,000 from the 1.49 million reported at the end of March.
This is less than half the levels seen during the height of the winter rush.
Professor Robert Dingwall, who has advised the government on the virus during the pandemic, told MailOnline today: ‘We have to stop jumping at every new variant of Covid that comes in unless there is strong evidence of a weakened immunity against it. ”
He added, “We need to treat Covid like any other flu-like disease. The flu virus also changes fairly regularly but it’s not major news.
Public health agencies are tracking changes so that vaccines can be adjusted to match. Covid now requires no different response’
Officials are no longer tracking the spread of the virus in the same way they used to, as part of the government’s pre-pandemic normality.
Variance tracking capabilities have also been cut back.
Like similar new Covid variants, online virus trackers have decided to call XBB.1.16 “Arcturus” after a pattern of naming new strains after mythical entities.
Arcturus means “guardian of the bear” and is associated with the constellation called Ursa Major.
New Covid strain accounts for one in 40 new cases as Arcturus claims 5 British lives.