Everything you need to know about the ‘arcturus’ Covid strain
Covid is once again taking off in India. Case rates are at their highest level in nearly eight months, with the latest wave thought to be driven by the emergence of a new omicron variant dubbed “arcturus”.
More than 10,000 new cases were reported on Thursday, but there have been no indications so far that arcturus is more severe than previous variants.
Here’s what we know so far.
What is the arcturus variant?
Arcturus has acquired multiple mutations to its genetic coding that help increase its ability to spread between humans.
Scientists who have studied the virus say it is capable of evading parts of the body’s immunological defences and expect it to “spread worldwide in the near future”.
The variant has spun off from omicron and, according to Japanese researchers, could be 1.2 times more infectious than the so-called “Kraken” variant, another omicron strain that emerged earlier in the year.
On March 30, the World Health Organisation (WHO) classified arcturus, which is officially titled XBB.1.16, as a variant under monitoring.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid technical lead, said: “It’s been in circulation for a few months.
“We haven’t seen a change in severity in individuals or in populations, but that’s why we have these systems in place.”
She said that laboratory studies showed “increased infectivity as well as potential increased pathogenicity”.
Where was it discovered?
Japanese researchers led by Prof Kei Sato said that the variant emerged and was detected in various countries at the end of March 2023.
It’s not yet clear where arcturus originated from, but the majority of sequences collected on the virus so far have come from India, according to Dr Van Kerkhove.
What are its symptoms?
Last week, Dr Vipin Vashishtha, the former head of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Immunisation, tweeted that pediatric cases of Covid were on the increase for the first time in six months.
He said a new set of symptoms appeared to be emerging, including high fever, cough and itchy conjunctivitis.
Prof Raj Rajnarayanan, an associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology, told Fortune there have been “lots of anecdotals of pediatric conjunctivitis in India”.
However, there is currently no hard data to prove whether arcturus is driving a new range of symptoms in children and patients more generally.
Will my vaccine protect against it?
From the reports and research that has emerged to date, there is no need to be concerned by arcturus.
Although the variant is capable of causing infections in people who have been vaccinated, this does not mean it can get past the immunological defences within the body that protect against severe illness and hospitalisation.
Prof Sir Andrew Pollard, one of the scientists behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, told The Times of India that variants like arcturus are able to spread throughout populations as “a wave of minor illness but can’t spread as a pandemic”.
He added: “Even with some waning and emergence of new immune-evading variants, this does not mean that the pandemic can come back because we still have very good immunity against severe disease and so high rates of hospital admissions and death will not occur, despite the annoying and unpleasant increase in infections.”
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