The World Health Organization (WHO) is alarmed by a new Covid subvariant that is also raising concerns in India. An increase in new cases of this Omicron subvariant, XBB.1.16, known as Arcturus, has been observed in India over the past few weeks. The Indian central government has urged citizens not to panic because all necessary preparations have been taken, and mock drills have been held in hospitals to refresh doctors’ knowledge of how to assist Covid patients. Cases associated with this variation are also increasing, among other places, in Singapore, the US, and Australia.
Arcturus: The subvariant spreads appear to be 1.17 to 1.27 times more effective than the XBB.1
Several US states, including California, Washington, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Texas, have claimed cases of Arcturus, according to a tracker maintained by Rajendram Rajnarayanan, MSc, PhD, of the New York Institute of Technology. The Omicron variant’s two subvariants are combined to create the XBB.1.16 subvariant. The subvariant spreads appear to be 1.17 to 1.27 times more effective than the XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 or Kraken subvariants, according to a preprint study from the University of Tokyo. The preprint paper said that “we first show that XBB.1.16 had an effective reproductive number (Re) that was 1.27- and 1.17-fold higher than the parental XBB.1 and XBB.1.5, respectively.” This finding suggests that XBB.1.16 will likely spread globally soon.
The name Arcturus has been popularised by the former Indian Academy of Paediatrics Committee on Immunisation convenor Vipin M Vashishtha. He used it as a hashtag in a tweet in March to warn about the rising COVID-19 cases. He said in a tweet, “All eyes should be on India! If XBB.1.16 aka Arcturus could succeed to wade through the ‘sturdy’ population immunity of Indians that successfully resisted the onslaught of variants like BA.285, BA.5, BQs, XBB.1.5, then the whole world must be seriously worried!”
Symptoms of this subvariant in children are
- High fever
- Cough
- Itchy conjunctivitis or pink eye without pus but with sticky eyes
- Nasal discharge
According to pediatrician Dr. Rahul Nagpal of India Today, doctors have noticed an increase in COVID-19 instances among kids who have conjunctivitis. He continued, “Usually, these kids come in with straightforward respiratory infections like a cough, cold, and fever, and they test positive.”
