New family of COVID subvariants detected in Australia
If you feel like you're seeing a rise in respiratory illnesses you're not imagining it. Across Australia flu, pneumonia, and RSV are just some of the lurgies doing the rounds. And now COVID cases are also on the rise as a new highly transmissible sub-variant arrives here.
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00:00 Coughing, sneezing, wheezing. They're telltale signs of illness and of late it seems more
00:08 of us are getting sick. One driver is a spike in COVID.
00:12 I tested positive on Monday but I think it started on Saturday. I woke up with a cough
00:22 and a sneeze.
00:23 More of us could be getting COVID again soon. That's because a new family of competitive
00:28 sub-variants has arrived. Nicknamed FLIRT, they derive from JN1 and before that Omicron
00:34 and they're highly transmissible, dominating cases wherever they go. It could even lead
00:38 to updated vaccines at some stage.
00:41 What these variants are doing is they're just becoming better at navigating past and around.
00:46 It's not that the antibodies aren't binding but the virus is just becoming a little bit
00:49 slipperier.
00:50 While more of us are likely to get it, these variants cause less severe disease than earlier
00:54 ones.
00:55 The problem is a number of respiratory illnesses are also circulating, including the flu, whooping
01:01 coughs, so-called walking pneumonia and RSV. Carmel suspects she's had a double whammy.
01:07 I thought I probably, knowing my luck, had a combination of the flu and COVID.
01:12 All that illness could add pressure to our care systems.
01:15 There will be more flu, there is a little bit more RSV. The coincidence of these three
01:21 respiratory illnesses do pose some particular challenges to health care systems, to aged
01:26 care.
01:27 One of the effects is obviously people who get sick and need hospital care, but one of
01:31 the other effects is in terms of impacts upon our staff as well.
01:35 A timely reminder to be COVID safe.
01:37 I would do take the opportunity to encourage people who haven't been vaccinated for either
01:43 flu or keep up to date with their COVID boosters to please do so.
01:48 And maybe treat yourself to some new face masks.
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