FLiRT arrives, the new most contagious Covid variant that is already circulating in Spain.

More than four years have passed since COVID-19 It has paralyzed the world, and although the virus already coexists in our daily lives and measures such as vaccination have stopped its high virulence, it continues to circulate and has new variants.

The last one is called FLIRT (KP.2)which was discovered by the American Medical Society after a 25% surge in new cases, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDS).

It’s been circulating there for three months now, but last week it was discovered in Spainin particular in Barcelona, ​​in two patients from Vall d’Hebron (Barcelona), as well as in wastewater from the rivers Besos, Igualada and Lleida, according to the respiratory viruses department of the Barcelona Hospital.

Last week, the German hospital Trias in Badalona discovered the first two FLiRT variants that are aiming to become dominant. “This variant will proliferate and seek to replace existing ones.but it is too early to say what impact this will have on infections and hospitalizations,” says Roger Paredes, head of the infectious disease service at Germany’s Trias Hospital. Vanguard.

Paredes predicts a rise in infections, which has already occurred in recent weeks in Spain according to the Carlos III Institute of Health, which could lead to more hospitalizations “among people at highest risk of complications from Covid.”

Although it is called a variant, FLiRT a set of JN.1-derived variants that dominated last fall, which have acquired several mutations that increase their ability to evade immunity. In particular, these are two amino acids of the S protein of the virus, which antibodies detect to neutralize it: they replaced F (phenylalanine) with L (leucine), and R (arginine) with T. (threonine), hence its name.

In this set of options There are mutations that increase the ability to bind to human cells, such as a mutation called KP.2.which has twice the potency of the dominant JN.1, according to data published by virologist Benjamin Murrell of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Symptoms are similar to those of the previous variants and are not necessarily more severe. Common symptoms include fever, chills, cough, sore throat, nasal congestion, runny nose, headaches, muscle aches, fatigue, loss of taste or smell, or gastrointestinal symptoms.

Over the past two weeks, the incidence has tripled.

The incidence of Covid-19 in Spain is at a high level. 24.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in primary health care facilities, compared to the 8.3 recorded the previous week, an increase of 192.77 percent. Additionally, the number of cases has tripled in the past two weeks, when an incidence rate of 7.7 was recorded.

This is reflected in the latest report from the Surveillance System for Acute Respiratory Infections (SiVIRA), prepared by the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII), which details the incidence of acute respiratory infections in Spain for the week of May 6 to 12 this year. year.

The highest rate of Covid-19 positivity was found in people aged 45 to 65 (11.4%), followed by people over 65 (10.8%). At the same time, children under one year of age are also highly positive for SARS-CoV-2 (8.1%).

The SARS-CoV-2 variant detected in the largest proportion in primary care was BA.2.86 (57.71%), with predominance from week 5 and corresponding to the circulation of the JN.1 lineage. This variant has already dominated throughout Europe during the winter season.

Likewise, the report assesses The hospitalization rate for Covid-19 was 1.35 cases per 100,000 inhabitants., compared to 0.86 cases the previous week. In terms of severity, since the start of the season, cases hospitalized with Covid-19 account for 30 percent of pneumonia, 4.2 percent of intensive care unit admissions and 8.9 percent of deaths.

In hospitalized cases, the SARS-CoV-2 variant detected in the largest proportion was also BA.2.86 (56.21%) with predominance from week 3 of 2024, consistent with the circulation of BA.2.86 and JN .1 lineages.

Such an increase in the incidence of Covid-19 is also observed for other respiratory diseases, since the rate for all of them at the republican level is 477.1 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, compared to 403 cases in the previous week.

The incidence of influenza is 8.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (6.8 cases/100,000 in the previous week), and the incidence of bronchiolitis is 1.9 cases/100,000 (2 cases/100,000 in the previous week).