The latest covid variant has two more distinct symptoms than other strains according to experts.
New Covid-19 variant Arcturus is rapidly spreading across the globe and worried health officials have warned it has new symptoms not seen in previous strains. Infectious disease doctors say the strain's mutation makes it highly transmissible, though no more severe than other variants.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, said: "It tends to produce more fever than some of the other strains we've seen" as well as a "tendency to produce conjunctivitis, particularly in children."
READ MORE: Map shows new 'Arcturus' variant covid cases as North West hit
Existing vaccines that work on Omicron also appear to work well against Acturus, the Mirror reports. Cases of Arcturus, which is also known as XBB.1.16, are rising across the world.
The variant has been found in the UK among 29 countries in total, and while levels have so far remained low, health officials are keeping a close eye on it. This latest variant reportedly also comes with a new symptom, not seen before with a coronavirus strain.
Reports from doctors in India, where the strain is rife, have also said they are seeing more children and adolescents with the variant presenting with conjunctivitis.
Arcturus is a subvariant of Omicron which seems to be more transmissible, having fuelled a recent surge of covid cases in India, years on from the height of the pandemic.
Indian paediatrician Vipn M. Vashishtha, also a member of the WHO's Vaccine Safety Net programme, said at the start of April that he had seen paediatric covid cases "once again after a gap" of six months. He explained youngsters were presenting with a high fever, cold and cough, and "itchy conjunctivitis" with "sticky eyes".
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