{"id":797805,"date":"2026-10-10T06:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/797805\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T06:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:22:21","slug":"what-is-xfg-covid-strain-symptoms-to-look-out-for-as-uk-cases-grow-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/797805\/","title":{"rendered":"What is XFG Covid strain? Symptoms to look out for as UK cases grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Independent<\/p>\n

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.<\/p>\n

Join today<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Already a member?
\n Log in<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Covid<\/a> cases have more than doubled and hospital admissions<\/a> are up five-fold this month, latest figures show. <\/p>\n

The UK<\/a> Health Security Agency (UKHSA) monthly figures show <\/a>that in August, 1,374 contracted Covid. In September, this jumped 230 per cent to 4,589. <\/p>\n

These figures show there were 950 hospital admissions<\/a> for Covid in August and the total jumped to 4,939 in September, up by around 420 per cent. <\/p>\n

UKHSA revealed the rate of positive Covid tests in hospitals increased from 5.9 per cent to 7 per cent, according to the latest figures in September. <\/p>\n

More than half of the positive tests were found to be a variant of XFG, also known as the Stratus or \u201cAmerican Covid\u201d strain, which was first identified last January and has since spread around the world. <\/p>\n

\"HospitalHospital admissions for Covid are up five-fold this month, according to latest data (PA)<\/p>\n

How much have Covid cases increased by? <\/p>\n

In one week alone, cases increased by almost 30 per cent. In the seven days to September 23, cases rose to 1,364 from 1,061 the previous week. <\/p>\n

Hospitalisations also increased by 15 per cent to 261 in the week to August 31, according to UKHSA data. <\/p>\n

However, the true number of infections may be higher, as UKHSA data comes from NHS England<\/a>\u2019s reports from tests on patients who become very unwell with the virus. <\/p>\n

That means there could be far more people suffering from milder forms of Covid and have not been admitted to hospital or officially diagnosed. <\/p>\n

But cases are still far below their peak in January 2021 when there were more than 20,000 people in hospital, according to UKHSA.<\/p>\n

The recent spike comes as health officials urge eligible people to get their flu<\/a> and Covid jabs ahead of the winter months when cases typically rise. <\/p>\n

\"UKHSAUKHSA data shows Covid cases have spiked since August and are at their highest since October last year (UKHSA)<\/p>\n

What is the XFG covid variant? <\/p>\n

The XFG strain or \u201cStratus\u201d has been in circulation in Europe and North America since the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organisation<\/a> identified it as a mix of earlier variants LF.7 and LP.8.1.2.<\/p>\n

Alex Allen, consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, said: \u201cWhile Covid-19 activity has shown some recent increases, cases remain at low levels in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cUKHSA is monitoring all the data relating to Covid-19 variants in the UK and abroad, and we continue to publish our findings in our regular surveillance reports.\u201d<\/p>\n

This winter\u2019s vaccine is specifically designed to protect against this strain and its variants.<\/p>\n

What are the symptoms? <\/p>\n

Symptoms of the XFG strain are similar to previous variants. It can cause a sore throat, cough, fever and hoarseness. <\/p>\n

But in most cases those who show symptoms do not need to take a lateral flow test, the NHS<\/a> said. <\/p>\n

However, the health service has advised those who think they have Covid to avoid contact with other people for five days, or three days for those under 18.<\/p>\n

Everyone who tests positive should avoid meeting people with weakened immune systems for 10 days after the day they took the test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-797805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}