\n The XFG strain, also known as “American Covid” or “Stratus,” has become one of the most common variants in circulation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite rising cases, health officials say it is not a new virus and has been monitored internationally for more than a year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ipswich Hospital is part of ESNEFT (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n Current evidence does not suggest it causes more severe illness than other strains.\n<\/p>\n
\n Catherine Morgan, chief nurse at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), which runs Ipswich Hospital, said: “As we move into the winter months, it is normal to see an increase in cases of seasonal viruses, including COVID-19 and flu.\n<\/p>\n
\n Catherine Morgan. Chief Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention and Control at ESNEFT (Image: ESNEFT)\n<\/p>\n
\n “While some patients at Ipswich Hospital are testing positive for COVID-19, we have not seen a significant rise in hospital admissions as a result of the virus.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We are unable to determine the specific strain of COVID-19 in these cases, and therefore cannot confirm whether they are linked to any particular variant.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Symptoms of the XFG strain are similar to previous variants and include a sore throat, cough, fever, headache, fatigue, congestion, runny nose, and muscle aches.\n<\/p>\n
\n A hoarse or croaky voice appears to be more common with XFG than with earlier strains.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ms Morgan said infection prevention and control measures remain in place across the trust’s hospitals and community services.\n<\/p>\n
\n She also encouraged eligible people to get vaccinated against both flu and Covid-19 this winter.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ipswich Hospital part of the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n She said respiratory viruses spread more easily when people spend more time indoors and vaccination remains the best way to reduce the risk of serious illness.\n<\/p>\n
\n Further information on Covid-19 and other infectious diseases is available from the UK Health Security Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The XFG strain, also known as “American Covid” or “Stratus,” has become one of the most common variants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-802725","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\/802725","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=802725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}