Ecuadorean health authorities have reported that the new FLiRT (KP.2) variant of Covid-19 had reached the country after two individuals -a 24-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman- tested positive in the Cotopaxi province. Both patients were vaccinated, the Health Ministry also noted.
Local experts recalled that although not lethal, FLiRT was highly contagious, and therefore insisted on the importance of personal hygiene. FLiRT can cause fever, muscle pain, headache, chills, respiratory problems, loss of smell or taste and gastrointestinal symptoms, Ecuador's Health Ministry also warned. Last June, the Medical Federation of Ecuador expressed concern about the increase in respiratory diseases such as influenza, Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus.
According to the guild, in private consultations last April, two out of 10 people tested positive for respiratory diseases, this figure growing to five out of 10 infected with a respiratory virus by this time of the year. Meanwhile, in the United States, authorities said that the KP.3 subtype remained the dominant version with 36.
9% of the cases according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), followed by KP.2 with 24.4%.
In addition, the new variant LB.1 accounted for 14.5% of cases while the once terryfying JN.
1 represented just 1% of infections. KP.2 and KP.
3 are subtypes of JN.1, all of them stemming from Omicron. KP.
3 is projected to continue increasing as proportions of the variants that cause COVID-19,�.
