A new Covid Arcturus variant has been found in the UK, reports confirm. The news comes as the same strain of the virus has forced India to bring back some of its mask wearing laws including compulsory wearing of face coverings in public - a move seen for the first time in more than a year for some.
Now, the UK Health Security Agency has confirmed that it is present in the UK, but so far, there are under 100 cases. The Omicron sub-variant has caught the attention of experts around the world as it caused a recent surge of infections in India with over 10,000 coronavirus cases reported in India over the past 24 hours according to publication, The Economic Times in the country.
The publication reports that common symptoms of this new variant include "upper respiratory illnesses like headache, sore throat, and blocked nose accompanied by fever and muscle pain", according to information on Apollo Hospitals' website. Adding that the variant can also affect your digestive system resulting in diarrhoea.
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According to the Mirror, India's health ministry launched mock drills this week in an attempt to see if hospitals are prepared to deal with a possible influx of patients following the rise in cases.
The Arcturus strain was first detected in late January and is currently being monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO), with officials noting some mutations of concern.
"We haven't seen a change in severity in individuals or in populations but that's why we have these systems in place," said the WHO's Covid technical lead Dr Maria Van Kerkhove. "It has one additional mutation in the spike protein which in lab studies shows increased infectivity as well as potential increased pathogenicity."
While Arcturus had been found in other countries, most cases were from India where it had overtaken other variants, Dr Van Kerkhove explained. But there has been no reported change in the severity of disease among those infected by the variant.
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