Covid-19: New highly contagious 'Arcturus' variant has experts on alert, should we be worried?

A new Covid strain is causing extreme concern for healthcare globally as it wreaks havoc in India, with hospitals now on red alert and compulsory face masks being brought back.

Some experts believe that 'Arcturus', a spin-off of Omicron, is the most contagious variant yet.

What is 'Arcturus' strain?

A new Covid variant dubbed 'Arcturus' has sparked extreme concern after causing a surge of cases in India with infections soaring 13-fold within the last month.

'Arcturus' is the name that has been given to Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.16.

It emerged in March and has been spotted since in 22 countries, but the largest outbreak by far is in India.

This has prompted the nation's health authorities to run hospital drills and reintroduce mask mandates in some areas.

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How worried should we be?

'Arcturus' has mutations on its spike protein that the Word Health Organisation (WHO) says could increase its ability to infect people as well as trigger disease.

Japanese researchers have suggested it is 1.2 times more infectious than the already super transmissible Kraken strain.

There is no evidence it increases the severity of the disease but a rise in cases could put health services under pressure.

Although top scientists don't expect it to be more lethal than other types currently circulating, which cause a much milder disease that closely resembles the flu, they believe it is single-handedly driving India's latest wave. It led to some states bringing back face masks in public settings, the first time in more than a year in some areas.

Do vaccines still work?

Early results suggest 'Arcturus' does not have any increased ability to evade protection from vaccines compared to other Omicron spin-offs.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's Covid technical lead, said:

It's been in circulation for a few months. We haven't seen a change in severity in individuals or in populations, but that's why we have these systems in place.

According to the expert, the strain has one additional mutation in the spike protein which in lab studies shows increased infectivity as well as potential increased pathogenicity. Thus far there had been no reported change in disease severity.

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Sources used:

- Daily Mail: 'Warning over new Covid variant 'Arcturus' that is causing carnage in India with infections surging 13-fold in the past month'