New covid variant -- dubbed 'kraken' -- found in Western Pa.

Jan. 9—A new strain of covid nicknamed the "kraken" for its dominance over previous strains of the virus has been found in the Western Pennsylvania region, health officials said.

Officially known as XBB.1.5, the new covid variant has jumped from just 1% of cases to become the dominant strain in the past six weeks.

"As with any new emerging covid-19 variant, the Heath Department is monitoring how it may impact the county's residents," Allegheny County Health Department director Dr. Debra Bogen said in a statement.

"To date, we have seen a limited number of XBB.1.5 variants in lab confirmed tests in Alle­gheny County."

Bogen recommends that residents keep up to date on their covid vaccinations as it is "the best way to protect yourself from severe outcomes."

"It's no surprise that it appeared," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "The coronavirus is part of a family that causes the majority of our common colds. You have to anticipate that the virus is going to continue to become more adept at infecting us."

Even before the appearance of XBB.1.5, covid-19 had increased its ability to cause illness in some areas.

While accounting for just 1% of all covid cases at the start of December, estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that XBB.1.5 surged to become the dominant strain by the end of the month, responsible for about 41% of all infections. In northeastern states, that figure has jumped above 70%.

Covid deaths dropped

Allegheny County saw more than 152,000 covid cases in 2022, an increase of nearly 22% from 2021, when there were about 125,000 cases. In 2020, Allegheny County recorded just under 55,000 cases.

In Westmoreland County, there were just over 36,600 cases, almost 9% fewer than were recorded in 2021, when just under 40,000 cases were logged. There were just under 20,000 cases in 2020.

Statewide, however, the numbers fell slightly. The state's final report on covid cases (via OpenData PA) shows Pennsylvania had 1.36 million covid cases in 2022, about 4% fewer cases than in 2021 when there were just over 1.4 million cases. The state had just over 664,600 cases in the first year of the pandemic in 2020.

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Related

—What we know about the 'kraken' covid variant XBB.1.5 and why it's causing concern

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Covid-related deaths fell sharply: The state recorded 11,137 in 2022, a 44% drop from the 19,899 recorded in 2021, and 18,000 in 2020.

There were 910 covid deaths reported for Allegheny County in 2022 and 352 in Westmoreland County.

The drop in deaths has coincided with a drop in covid-related hospitalizations.

"You're seeing a decoupling of the hospital with cases, as more people have access to vaccination and medications like Paxlovid," Adalja said. "There are going to be peaks and valleys with a respiratory virus like this, but the goal was to make this more like those other respiratory viruses that we deal with."

Most transmissable

That doesn't mean, however, that people should regard XBB.1.5 as they would a common cold.

XBB.1.5 is "the most transmissible subvariant which has been detected yet," said the World Health Organization's covid technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, during a news conference this month. While only 29 countries have reported cases caused by it, health authorities are warning it could be much more widespread and silently proliferating thanks to a drop in testing.

XBB.1.5 is a descendant of the omicron XBB subvariant, which is itself a cross between two earlier strains: BA.2.75 and BA.2.10.1. The original XBB variant already has caused waves of infection in countries including Singapore and India since the WHO first raised concern about it last October.

CDC officials refer to the continued use of masking as "a critical public health tool" on their website.

Adalja said it's important to recognize that despite the new variant being more contagious, it is not necessarily more dangerous.

"Something like Paxlovid works just as well on the new variant as it did with previous variants," he said. "It's more contagious, but it's not more severe, and the preventive measures we have are still working."

Adalja said that, for patients who are at higher risk if they contract covid, "this should be a reminder that you need to optimally protect yourself.

"If you're above 60, obese, pregnant, immunocompromised, you should get vaccinated, and make a plan to contact your physician if you do get sick," he said.

And the cost of that contact could change later this year.

Biden administration officials said the public health emergency declaration for the pandemic will be extended through spring 2023. If and when that expires, it could mean a significant increase in the cost of covid-related care.

For example, once the public health emergency ends, the federal government will stop paying for vaccines, tests and treatments, shifting the costs to the commercial sector, according to the nonprofit National Public Health Information Coalition.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services estimated that as many as 15 million people could lose Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program benefits once those programs return to pre-pandemic operations.

Why the kraken?

Covid-19 variants currently are named by an expert group convened by the WHO. It identifies so-called variants of concern that have potential global public health significance, such as reducing the effectiveness of current pandemic measures, using the Greek alphabet. Previous strains like alpha, beta and delta fell under the convention.

But the last Greek-named variant, omicron, emerged more than a year ago and left no room for the emergence of other, significantly different strains. Omicron has spawned multiple lineages, including XBB.1.5, and their names stem from a mix of alphabets and numbers known as "Pango."

That has led to the rise in popularity of informal online nicknames, including "kraken." The moniker for XBB.1.5 was proposed by an evolutionary professor on Twitter to match the strength of the new strain with the mythological sea monster.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .