WHO Says New COVID-19 Variant Is Spreading Globally

The AP (5/28, Johnson) reports the World Health Organization said Wednesday that COVID-19 cases are rising again as a new variant, NB.1.8.1, “begins to circulate in some parts of the world,” primarily the eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and western Pacific regions. The new variant “had by mid-May reached nearly 11% of sequenced samples reported.” US airport screening has so far “detected the new variant in travelers arriving from those regions to destinations in California, Washington state, Virginia and New York.”