As the weather gets colder, Australians should expect a winter wave of a new COVID-19 strain. / (min cost $ 0 ) or signup to continue reading The 'FLiRT' sublineages, including KP.2 and KP.
3, stem from , which dominated infections early this year. KP.2 made up around 50 per cent of COVID-19 infections in NSW up until May 4, according to While the found KP.
3 and other JN.1 variants were in wastewater in "increasing abundance" in their May 17 report. The World Health Organisation has classified these subvariants as The FLiRT name derives from the technical names of the of the variants.
Deakin University's chair of epidemiology, Catherine Bennett said these JN.1 sub-variants have been in Australia since February but were likely to increase into winter. "This looks like the early days of our winter pandemic, it will be driven by these K variants, the FLiRTs," she said.
"FliRT variants take up about half of the variants circulating, and if they take off they might push JN.1 into the background." Professor Bennett said the severity of the variants was similar to its parent strain but that disease-impact depended on the individual.
"Our immune memory isn't as fitted to this new variant so it can make us a bit more vulnerable." Professor Bennett said while repeat waves of COVID-19 were expected, there would be larger gaps between waves. "With each wave we have seen fewer people unwell with the virus and fewer deaths associated with each wave," she said.
Professor Bennett said people .