Arcturus transmission remains low
Connecticut has recorded its first two cases of a new COVID-19 subvariant that recently caused a surge in cases in India, the state’s Department of Public Health said Friday.
The XBB.1.16 subvariant — or Arcturus as some researchers have called it — is part of the omicron family and is believed to be relatively similar to previous strains, meaning immunity from vaccines or prior infection will likely
Connecticut has recorded its first cases of a new COVID-19 subvariant that recently caused a surge in cases in India, the state’s Department of Public Health said Friday. moot its impact. Still, the World Health Organization has declared Arcturus a “variant of interest” and has warned of COVID-19 continued ability to cause serious illness.
“As the emergence of the new XBB.1.16 variant illustrates, the virus is still changing and is still capable of causing new waves of diseases and death,” WHO directorgeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week.
In India, Arcturus replaced previously dominant variants, sparking a rise in cases that led some parts of the country to restore mask mandates.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, the new variant currently accounts for about 12 percent of COVID-19 cases nationally and about 7 percent in New England.
Though Connecticut’s Department of Public Health has only recorded two cases of the subvariant so far, a spokesperson noted that only a subset of cases are sequenced and that the strain’s true prevalence is likely much higher.
Despite the arrival of the new variant, Connecticut’s COVID-19 numbers remain lower than at any other point in the past year. As of Friday, the state has recorded 327 positive results out of 11,042 tests over the previous week, for a test positivity rate of about 3 percent — down from higher than 15 percent at times last winter.
Meanwhile, the state had 78 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday, the fewest at a time in nearly two years, according to state data.
Though Connecticut reported 24 additional COVID-linked deaths Thursday, a DPH spokesperson said the total was the product of a lag in state data and that many of those deaths had come from previous months. The previous week, Connecticut had reported no COVID-19 deaths.
Altogether, Connecticut has now recorded 12,326 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.