Parts of the World Seeing New COVID-19 Variant

WEDNESDAY, May 28, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Health officials at the World Health Organization are warning of a rise in cases from a new COVID-19 variant.

The new variant, NB.1.8.1, has been spotted in the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, and Western Pacific regions. Airport screenings in the United States have identified the new variant in travelers arriving from affected regions. These travelers were heading to destinations in California, Washington state, Virginia, and New York, the Associated Press reported.

As of mid-May, this variant has been identified in nearly 11 percent of sequenced samples reported worldwide. The WHO has designated this variant as a "variant under monitoring," and currently assesses the public health risk as low at the global level, with the expectation that current vaccines will remain effective against it.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced earlier this week that his agency will no longer recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women. Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends the COVID-19 booster only for adults 65 years and older and those with certain health conditions that put them at increased risk for severe complications.

"WHO continues to monitor emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and undertakes risk evaluation for designated variants of interest and variants under monitoring with the support of the Technical Advisory Group of Virus Evolution," the WHO stated in an outbreak update. "Evaluation of the currently predominant variant under monitoring, LP.8.1, and the most recently designated variant under monitoring, NB.1.8.1, suggests no increased public health risk posed by these variants compared to other circulating variants."

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