There's a new variant of the coronavirus that infectious disease experts and public health officials are keeping a close eye on. XBB.1.16, also known as Arcturus, is an Omicron subvariant that appears to be more transmissible and has fueled a recent surge of COVID-19 cases in India. While the variant is circulating at low levels in the U.S., health officials are closely monitoring it.
, Vipin M. Vashishtha, an Indian pediatrician who is also a member of the WHO's Vaccine Safety Net program, said he had started to get pediatric COVID-19 cases again, and more children who are sick with XBB.1.16 are experiencing"itchy conjunctivitis with sticky eyes."on Thursday that experts are seeing the same eye symptoms in young patients who are sick with COVID-19.
“We don't have the context of whether they're seeing that in some of the regions in India. We know their COVID cases are going up, and presumably, these kids are testing positive for COVID, but we don't know if they're testing positive for anything else either,” Chang said. “We are seeing adenovirus circulating, so even if COVID cases go up, unless you're doing testing for both COVID and adenovirus, which most people aren't … it may be difficult [to determine] what's causing your pink eye.”When a new variant of the coronavirus emerges, one concern that arises is whether our current vaccines will protect us against that strain.
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