A man has died from a new strain of Covid as nations across the world have reported increasing numbers of infections. An elderly man in Thailand, who is as yet unnamed, is the first reported death from Arcturus.
The Omicron subvariant was first seen in India and has been on the World Health Organisation's watchlist since the end of March. Skyrocketing infections have prompted Indian health officials to reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing among other measures.
According to the Mirror, 27 cases had so far been detected in Thailand with the country's director-general of the Medical Sciences reporting that the deceased was "an elderly foreigner" with underlying health conditions. Dr Supakit Sirilak however dampened some fears stating that the death "may not directly reflect the severity of this subvariant but rather its impact on other risk factors."
Arcturus has led to a spike in cases years on from the coronavirus pandemic peak, and doctors are noticing that more young patients with the virus are experiencing conjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis - or pink eye - is red, sore eye inflammation, usually caused by an allergy, and has been seen in children and adolescents testing positive for the variant in India
Prof Dr Yong Poovorawan, who heads the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine, told reporters that he believes that the strain will inevitably become dominant in Thailand. Between April 9 and 15, the number of patients hospitalised with the virus was up two and a half times from the previous week.
Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor announced on Tuesday that it detected its first of several cases and said it may have "greater contagiousness." Rospotrebnadzor's statement continued: "But is not characterised by high pathogenicity. That is, the disease caused by it proceeds in a mild form."
American public health officials are reporting that Arcturus is now causing 7% of all coronavirus cases in the country. Making it the second most prevalent variant behind Omicron.
A study by the University of Tokyo has found that the new variant is 1.2 times more infectious than the Omicron
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.
Mayo Clinic viral disease expert Matthew Binnicker, PhD, told The Seattle Times : "One new feature of cases caused by this variant is that it seems to be causing conjunctivitis, or red and itchy eyes, in young patients.
"This is not something that we've seen with prior strains of the virus."
Dr Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer in communicable diseases at the University of Exeter said: "The emergence of this new variant clearly shows us that the biology of the virus is alive and well and kicking."
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