Recent data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that a COVID-19 variant that has been circulating since last year is currently the dominant variant in the United States.
The LP.8.1 COVID-19 variant, an offshoot of the Omicron strain, was first detected in June 2024, health officials have said. CDC data show that it makes up 73 percent of all cases detected in the country as of May 24, according to an update issued on June 1. The XFC variant is No. 2 at 10 percent, and the XEC variant is third at 4 percent.
Both LP.8.1. and NB.1.8.1 have not shown signs that they represent an “increased public health risk” when compared with other circulating variants, the U.N. health body stated.
A spokesperson for the CDC told The Epoch Times that fewer than 20 sequences of NB.1.8.1 have appeared in the United States.
In a statement last week, the CDC said that the health agency “is aware of reported cases of COVID-19 NB.1.8.1 in China and is in regular contact with international partners.”
“It has not met the threshold for inclusion in the COVID Data Tracker dashboard. We monitor all SARS-CoV-2 sequences, and if it increases in proportion, it will appear on the Data Tracker dashboard,” the spokesperson added.
In its most recent update on May 23, the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) acknowledged that NB.1.8.1 makes up the majority of cases in the country. Some doctors in China have told state-run media that one symptom that appears to be different than other variants is a sharply painful sore throat.
Some outside experts have questioned the actual death toll and case numbers reported by China’s ruling communist regime since the pandemic’s start in early 2020.
Dr. Jonathan Liu, professor at the Canadian College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and director of the Kang Mei TCM Clinic, said that official data for March showed that only seven people died from COVID-19 that month.
The China CDC “has not reported the rate of severe cases, hospitalization rate, or mortality rate,” said Sean Lin, assistant professor at the Biomedical Science Department of Fei Tian College, former U.S. Army microbiologist, and Epoch Times contributor.
The WHO said in an update on May 28 that the variant is driving up cases in parts of the world and is currently spreading in Southeast Asia, the western Pacific regions, and the Mediterranean. The new strain was also called a “variant under monitoring” by the U.N. health body last week.