United States: The latest and more contagious variant of COVID-19 is fast spreading in the US. Analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) demonstrates that NB.1.8.1 has begun replacing other existing variants of the coronavirus.
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The most recent CDC Nowcast, through June 7, was an indication that NB.1.8.1 may be responsible for 37 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the US, topping that of the current dominant variant (LP.8.1) by what may seem an impractically small margin of 1 percentage point.
It is still an estimate, but the numbers provided by the CDC suggest a huge upsurge in the cases of NB.1.8.1 over the past month, as authorities in the nation discovered it in the country just a month ago.
Not definitely, but perhaps NB.1.8.1 might become a motivator of another outbreak of COVID-19 this summer, as gizmodo.com reported.
A new #COVID-19 variant that led to a spike in hospital cases across parts of Asia may now account for more than one-third of all COVID cases in the U.S., health officials say. https://t.co/VnjQ3s8Xz1
— HealthDay News (@HealthDayTweets) June 16, 2025
First identified in late January, the NB.1.8.1 variant was initially identified as worth tracking when the World Health Organization (WHO) first identified it as a worrying variant in mid-May.
It has since grown to be even more of a threat. WHO data suggests that as of early June, it is estimated that NB.1.8.1 accounted for about a quarter of all cases globally.
Overall, COVID-19 activity is also increasing in some world territories, and NB.1.8.1 has been associated with recent epidemics and hospitalizations in Asian areas, such as China.
Up to now, in the US, however, the picture does not appear to be getting significantly worse.
The positivity rate of the COVID-19 test by the end of the week is 3 percent, slightly higher than the past week.
There have also been low and stable numbers of hospitalizations and deaths as a result of COVID-19.
And NB.1.8.1 does not appear to make people seriously ill on average, any more than other variants that are in circulation, as gizmodo.com reported.
Even the variants of today are within the Omicron lineage of the virus; that is, the variants have not changed substantially at a genetic level, and the updated booster doses of the vaccine should work against NB.1.8.1.