A NEW "highly transmissible" Covid variant has arrived in the UK, an expert has warned.
Cases of the bug have fallen in recent weeks, but are expected to surge around Christmas.
The HV.1 strain, an offshoot of Omicron, currently accounts for around a quarter of all Covid infections across the US, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr Phillip Gould, a virologist from Coventry University, said the strain, dubbed the "grandchild of Omicron" will already be making its way around the UK.
He told The Sun: "This new variant is becoming dominant in North America.
"With global travel, it will have already entered the UK many times."
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During the two weeks ending on November 11, HV.1 accounted for 29 per cent of new Covid infections in the US, per the CDC.
So far, HV.1 cases in the UK are low but will rapidly increase in the coming weeks, the virologist explained.
"Vaccination will help reduce this rate as the boosters protect against the Omicron variant," he added.
Speaking to Today.com, Dr William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, explained how contagious the new variant is.
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He said: "You can almost think of HV.1 as a grandchild of Omicron.
"One of the characteristics of this entire Omicron family is that they are highly transmissible."
All Covid-19 variants that have become dominant in the UK over the last year are descendants of Omicron, which began circulating in November 2021.
The emergence of HV.1 demonstrates how the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid, can mutate and give rise to new, highly contagious variants.
Government figures suggest Covid infections have begun to fall after a sudden uptick from July to September.
There were 4,549 new cases of Covid reported in England in the week up to November 9, according to the latest data.
This shows a 25 per cent decrease from 6,086 during the previous seven days.
Symptoms of the new variant are likely to be "identical" to the previous Omicron strain but "will be more severe if the person hasn’t had a recent infection with a close relative," Dr Phillip explained.
Doctors are finding that Omicron symptoms are changing.
Experts have discovered that the bug now affects the upper respiratory tract, which includes the nose and voice box, making it harder to differentiate from a cold and flu.
Dr Erick Eiting, from Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in New York, US, told NBC News: "It isn’t the same typical symptoms we saw before.
"It’s a lot of congestion, sometimes sneezing, usually a mild sore throat."
He explained that the sore throat emerges first, followed by a stuffy nose.
The Zoe Covid Symptom Study, which collects data on self-reported symptoms in the UK, said the five most common symptoms currently are:
- Runny nose
- Headache
- Fatigue (mild or severe)
- Sneezing
- Sore throat
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