The COVID "FLiRT" Symptoms You Need to Know About
There are several COVID variants right now which have the same "set of mutations," and are being referred to as FLiRT.
KP.3 — which comes from the JN.1 strain — is now the most dominant variant, accounting for 37% of cases.
The symptoms are similar to other COVID strains. Being sick and experiencing a chronic cough, elevated fever, sore throat or a runny nose should prompt you to get a COVID-19 test to ensure you are not contagious.
The COVID-19 FLiRT variant is still dominating the infection charts.
The latest report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published on July 6th, revealed that FLiRT is quickly spreading across the United States. The CDC estimates that KP.3 currently accounts for 36.9% of cases, while KP.2 makes up 24.4% of current COVID infections.
“The FLiRT variant appeared in March,” says Tammy Lundstrom, MD, JD, the senior vice president at Trinity Health who led their COVID-19 response. “Throughout the COVID-19 era, new strains have continued to arise. Like other strains, it appears highly transmissible, but it does not appear more virulent at this point.”
However, since just 22.5% of American adults have received a COVID-19 vaccine since September 2023, according to the latest data, what does this mean for COVID-19 infections during summer and beyond? We spoke with experts to explain the new variant, symptoms to watch out for and how to protect yourself and your loved ones from the latest SARS‑CoV‑2 virus variant.
What is the FLiRT variant?
As fun as the name sounds, FLiRT is not the official designation for the dominant COVID-19 variant. That is actually a cheeky nickname for a whole family of different variants (any that start with KP or JN). “The FLiRT variants came to the forefront at the end of April,” says Nikhil K. Bhayani, MD, FIDSA, an infectious disease specialist and assistant professor at the Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University.
KP.2 and KP.3 is the official name of the variants that unseated JN.1 as the dominant strain. However, the FLiRT variants are all descendants of the JN.1 variant — meaning the “parent” variant (JN.1) is being unseated by several “child” variants. Although KP.3 and KP.2 are now the dominant strains of COVID-19, various variations of JN.1 are still swirling in some capacity.
What are the symptoms?
The good news is that KP.3 and KP.2 doesn’t seem to spark any surprise symptoms. “The symptoms are similar to other COVID-19 strains,” says Dr. Lundstrom. The CDC updated its list of possible symptoms in March, and those include:
Fever or chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Fatigue
Muscle or body aches
Headache
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Congestion or runny nose
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea
“Like similar recent strains, the incidence of loss of taste and smell are not prominent," adds Lundstrom.
Do we need to worry about a summer surge?
The wastewater viral activity for COVID-19 — how the CDC tracks trends in infectious disease circulating in a community — is currently listed as “low,” according to the most recent CDC data.
Dr. Lundstrom says that “there is a concern that this new variant could fuel a summer surge in cases,” and points out that “throughout the COVID-19 era, we have seen a rise in infections during summer.” And as of now, KP.3 appears to be "very contagious and spreading now."
Is there a new vaccine?
Our experts said that vaccines still provide good protection against COVID-19, “especially against severe illness and hospitalization,” says Dr. Lundstrom. However, a study published in April found that KP.2 is proving to have “the most significant resistance” to the 2023-24 COVID-19 booster, and that this “increased immune resistance ability of KP.2 partially contributes to the higher” prevalence of infections “than previous variants, including JN.1”
At the end of June, the CDC recommended that everyone ages 6 months and older receive the updated 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine, which was tweaked based on the most dominant variants circulating this year. The most updated COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be rolled out this Fall. “The World Health Organization is recommending the upcoming COVID booster to be based on the predominant lineage for the year,” adds Dr. Bhayani.
However, the CDC and our experts still recommend the current vaccine to protect yourself before the 2024-25 booster is made available in the fall. “Adults over the age of 65 should get the last COVID-19 vaccine available,” says Bhayani. Dr. Lundstrom suggests that older adults “should be vaccinated four months after their last vaccination” and those with compromised immune systems “should get vaccinated two months after their last dose.”
How to protect yourself
In March, the CDC updated the Respiratory Virus Guidance as COVID-19 cases have decreased over time. “It is still an important health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including flu and RSV,” the new guidance states.
“The same precautions will help protect against the spread of most respiratory viruses: wash hands frequently, cover your mouth and nose when sneezing/coughing, stay up to date with vaccinations and stay home when ill to prevent spreading infection to others,” suggests Dr. Lundstrom. However, Dr. Bhayani reminds us that the elderly, individuals with compromised immune systems, and kids “should take extra precautions, such as avoiding large crowds and wear masks if COVID-19 cases are on the rise locally.”
If you do get sick, the CDC still recommends staying at home until your symptoms are improving overall, and you have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication). Afterward, you can resume normal activities and “use added prevention strategies over the next five days.”
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