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Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that in a two-week period ending Saturday, June 8, the strain made up 25 percent of cases nationally, just ahead of the KP.2 variant (22.5 percent).
Both KP.3 and KP.2 are offshoots of the highly contagious Omicron variant and are members of a newly identified group of variants known as “FLiRT.”
Neither is expected to cause more serious symptoms than other COVID strains, according to experts.
KP.3 has become the No.1 strain because of its high transmission level, and it is “very good at jumping from one person to another,” Dr. C. Leilani Valdes, a pathologist and medical director at Regional Pathology Associates in Texas, told Health.
The JN.1 strain, also an Omicron subvariant, had dominated nationally before the "FLiRT" strains emerged.
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