Authorities in the United States reported the evidence of a Covid strain, last month (May 2025) called XFC, which has been significantly growing.
But now a slightly dangerous new variant from China is surging in California, according to the California Department of Public Health.
This variant is NB1.8.1.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified at least 518 cases of this virus, with information obtained from 22 countries, as of the 18th May 2025.
The California Department of Public Health said in a brief to the “COVID-19 continues to circulate in California and future seasonal increases in disease levels are likely…”
The WHO and its Technical Advisory Group on virus evolution, has advised member countries prioritise specific actions, such as “conducting neutralization assays using human sera, representative of affected communities and that of naive animal models infected with NB1.8.1. and do a comparative evaluation to detect changes in rolling or ad hoc indicators of severity”
Picture: UK Security Health