Another NEW covid variant is currently rapidly gaining a foothold. Known officially as XFG—or informally as “Stratus”—it has been declared a “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organization (WHO), and is expected to circulate alongside the now dominant Nimbus variant throughout the northern hemisphere summer. The risk to public health is low, the WHO has said. Infections are characterized by a particular symptom: hoarseness.
Stratus is a combination of the LF.7 and LP.8.1.2 lineages of the virus, and when comparing Stratus to the previously dominant JN1 variant, “distinct mutational profiles in the spike protein can be identified,” the WHO has said. “Spike mutations at amino acids 478 and 487