New Covid-19 strain FLuQE is contributing to a ‘sicker than normal’ winter season in Australia
Australians have been warned that a new Covid-19 variant is contributing to a ‘sicker than normal’ winter season.
KP.3, also known as FLuQE, is a subvariant of the previously most dominant strain FLiRT and contains a new mutation that makes it more contagious.
The FLiRT family consists entirely of descendants of the JN.1 variant, which caused massive infections in Australia and many other countries six months ago.
Experts fear that FLuQE means Australia is facing a new wave of Covid infections.
“We are sicker than normal this winter and we are seeing a lot of things circulating at the same time,” Professor Paul Griffin from the University of Queensland told SBS.
‘This means that a very large part of the population is infected or has recently been infected.’
In addition to FLiRT, the numbers show Australia is dealing with waves of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), mycoplasma pneumonia and whooping cough.
Professor Griffin, an infectious disease physician and clinical microbiologist, said he cannot remember ‘a time when all five of these things were circulating in such large numbers’.
Australians warned new Covid-19 strain is contributing to ‘sicker than usual’ winter season
KP.3, also known as FLuQE, is a subvariant of the previously most dominant strain FLiRT and contains a new mutation that makes it more contagious
“What this virus has done many times, and continues to do, is it has changed dramatically.
‘In our country, FLuQE, or KP.3, has certainly achieved FLiRT, or KP.2.’
Data from NSW Health shows the first FLuQE cases were recorded in the state in late March.
Within two months, by late May, FLuQE was the dominant variant circulating in the state.
An increase in whooping cough has been reported in both New South Wales and Queensland. Whooping cough is a potentially fatal respiratory infection that is most serious in babies under 12 months of age.
Together, the two states have recorded more than 10,000 cases this year.
In Australia, too, flu cases are on the rise. In New South Wales alone, 16,777 cases were recorded last week, about double the number reported two weeks earlier.