LOS ANGELES — The new COVID-19 subvariants collectively nicknamed FLiRT are continuing to increase their dominance nationwide, fueling a rise in cases in Los Angeles County and growth in the coronavirus levels seen in California wastewater. Taken together, the data point to a coronavirus resurgence in the Golden State — one that, while not wholly unexpected given the trends seen in previous pandemic-era summers, has arrived earlier and is being driven by even more transmissible strains than those previously seen . It remains unclear how bad the COVID situation may get this summer, however.
Doctors have said that by the Fourth of July, we may have a better feel for how the rest of the season will play out. The U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the FLiRT subvariants — officially known as KP.3, KP.2 and KP.
1.1 — make up a combined 62.9% of specimens nationwide for the two-week period ending Saturday.
That’s up from 45.3% a month ago. Experts say the new subvariants are more contagious than the winter’s dominant subvariant , JN.
1. California is now one of 15 states with high or very high coronavirus levels in sewage, according to the CDC. Those states are generally in the West and the South, as well as New England.
Besides California, they are Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. Coronavirus levels in California wastewater overall have sharpl.