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A new strain of COVID-19 known as Stratus is now spreading globally – with predominant cases across several US states, including New York. According to experts, this variant – first detected in Southeast Asia earlier this year – is currently predominant in at least nine US states. Stratus evades the immune system better than the previous Nimbus strain.

A new strain of COVID-19 has been spiking across the United States – especially New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Vermont, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and both North and South Dakota. Identified as the XFG variant, the strain is also known as Stratus.
According to the World Health Organisation, it has been gaining momentum after first being detected in Southeast Asia in January this year. The global organization has designated Stratus as a “SARS-CoV-2 variant under monitoring” after it had spread to 38 countries by June.
News reports say the Stratus variant follows the Nimbus strain – highly infectious and linked to severe “razor blade” sore throat symptoms. Experts opine that the mutation of Stratus happened in a way that allows it to evade the immune system and attack it better than Nimbus. And so, for those who are not vaccinated and were previously uninfected, the strain may even be harder to fight off.

In summer this year, there was a sudden rise in the cases being driven by two fast-spreading sub-variants – OF.7 and NB.1.8 – both of which are descendants of the JN.1 lineage – itself a subvariant of the Omicron strain—that killed thousands during the second COVID-19 wave in 2021.

WHO has already classified JN.1 as a “variant of interest” due to its rapid transmission, though it has not been labelled a “variant of concern,” at least for now. Its descendants, LF.7 and NB.1.8, are also under global observation.