A new wave of COVID variant, Arcurus, found in India is now in Britain.
The variant is an offshoot of Omicron and is expected to be the most contagious variant. It was first detected by health chiefs last month, and now almost 50 cases have now been spotted, Daily Mail reports.
Indian hospitals are now on red alert, with the compulsory wearing of face masks being brought back in some states to curb the spread of high infection rates which have soared 13-fold in the last month.
Top scientists don’t expect Arcturus, with the scientific name XBB.1.16, to be more deadly than other types of COVID currently circulating.
Unlike the early days of the pandemic, the illness caused by the coronavirus now resembles that of the flu.
According to the UK Health and Security Agency, the variant was already in the UK according to its final variant report issued last month.
The Ministry of Health in India said there were 40,215 active COVID-19 cases on April 12, up by 3,122 in just one day.
Credit: Punch