If it feels like COVID-19 is everywhere again, you're not imagining it. Data show cases are on the rise in nearly all U.S. states and COVID-related emergency room visits are up among all age groups, just in time for back-to-school season.

The current summer COVID wave in the U.S. is being fueled in part by highly contagious new variants, including XFG, aka "Stratus," which is spreading rapidly worldwide.

The virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, mutates often, leading to new strains of the virus are more transmissible and better at evading immunity than their predecessors.

The XFG variant was first detected in January in Southeast Asia and caused surges in India this spring. The earliest cases in the U.S. were reported around March, but it took several months for XFG to take off and s

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