{"id":57097,"date":"2025-08-07T17:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57097"},"modified":"2025-08-07T17:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:18:14","slug":"new-covid-variant-with-this-distinctive-symptom-driving-up-cases-in-fl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/08\/07\/new-covid-variant-with-this-distinctive-symptom-driving-up-cases-in-fl\/","title":{"rendered":"New COVID Variant With This Distinctive Symptom Driving Up Cases In FL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Data shows that the new COVID-19 variant XFG, or &#8220;Stratus,&#8221; is the driving up cases across the U.S. and in Florida this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"7e8492\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"286\" height=\"176\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/download-1.webp?resize=286%2C176&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-57098 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #7e8492; width:462px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new variant XFG, or \u201cStratus,\u201d has become the third-most dominant strain of COVID-19 this summer and is driving up case estimates in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stratus is similar in symptoms and seriousness to other Omicron variants, but it may present a never-before-seen symptom: hoarseness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#variant-proportions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">data<\/a>&nbsp;from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows Stratus accounted for 14 percent of COVID-19 cases in late June. Stratus was first detected in Southeast Asia in January, but didn\u2019t show up in U.S. surveillance reports until May, when it represented 0 percent of infections. The World Health Organization classified XFG as a \u201cvariant under monitoring\u201d in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Getting a full picture of COVID-19 activity can be difficult given shifting priorities in federal and state health policy. But several key measures help put together a picture of what\u2019s happening in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CDC said that as of July 29, its&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/cfa-modeling-and-forecasting\/rt-estimates\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">COVID-19 forecasting models<\/a>&nbsp;show infection rates in Florida are growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overall, the projections show infections are growing or likely to grow in 40 states and are unchanged in nine others. The highest rates of transmission are in the South, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Midwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The public health agency also said COVID&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nwss\/rv\/COVID19-national-data.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">viral activity in wastewater<\/a>&nbsp;remains \u201clow\u201d nationally, but at least 10 states had \u201chigh\u201d or \u201cvery high\u201d levels, as of July 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With 13 sites reporting, viral activity in Florida is currently high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the seven-day period ending July 31, 2.14 percent of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#ed-visits_separated_by_age_group\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">emergency room visits<\/a>&nbsp;in Florida had been for COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although hoarseness is unique to Stratus, symptoms common to other variants include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, sore throat, congestion and runny nose, loss of taste or smell, fatigue, muscle and body aches, headache, nausea and vomiting, and diarrhea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Stratus variant may be better than others at evading immunity protection, according to experts. Although&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/vaccines\/hcp\/imz-schedules\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">vaccine guidance is changing<\/a>, the CDC website still says the COVID-19 vaccine helps protect against \u201csevere illness, hospitalization, and death.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data shows that the new COVID-19 variant XFG, or &#8220;Stratus,&#8221; is the driving up cases across the U.S. and in Florida this summer. The new variant XFG, or \u201cStratus,\u201d has&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDhcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEud2VicD9maXQ9Mjg2JTJDMTc2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTmV3IENPVklEIFZhcmlhbnQgV2l0aCBUaGlzIERpc3RpbmN0aXZlIFN5bXB0b20gRHJpdmluZyBVcCBDYXNlcyBJbiBGTCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.r2mG5-1GKOCcGfcZPVYBFp0pgyGtMeZS_NnntLex4aUMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57098,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/download-1.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[11932],"class_list":["post-57097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-new-covid-variant-with-this-distinctive-symptom-driving-up-cases-in-fl"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57099,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57097\/revisions\/57099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}