--- title: What to Know About the KP.3.1.1 Variant of COVID-19 description: A new COVID-19 variant is spreading widely in the U.S. Here's what to know about KP.3.1.1. canonical: https://time.com/7014374/new-covid-19-variant-kp311/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-08-23T15:07:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T18:11:53.149Z article:section: Health og:title: What to Know About the KP.3.1.1 Variant of COVID-19 og:description: The newest variant is causing plenty of COVID-19 cases. og:url: https://time.com/7014374/new-covid-19-variant-kp311/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f652a0d36c23f25/698a5a319d83e80a0db9a708/covid-19-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: A COVID-19 test and face mask. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About the KP.3.1.1 Variant of COVID-19 twitter:description: The newest variant is causing plenty of COVID-19 cases. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f652a0d36c23f25/698a5a319d83e80a0db9a708/covid-19-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About the KP.3.1.1 Variant of COVID-19 > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Aug 23, 2024 3:07 PM UTC  A COVID-19 test and a mask at a home in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2024. A COVID-19 test and a mask at a home in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2024.Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Aug 23, 2024 3:07 PM UTC Chances are, at least one person you know—and probably many people you know—have caught COVID-19 this summer. Ever since the [“FLiRT” variants](https://time.com/6972143/covid-19-flirt-variants-kp-2/) emerged this spring, the U.S. has been hit with one new variant after another, leading to a seemingly never-ending wave of cases. The amount of virus in [wastewater has steadily risen since May](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance) and levels are now “very high,” in part because there’s yet another new variant on the scene: KP.3.1.1. KP.3.1.1 was to blame for more than a third of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. during the two weeks ending Aug. 17, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [data show](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions). And that’s a lot of cases: about one in 34 people in the U.S. currently has COVID-19, independent data scientist and infectious-disease modeler Jay Weiland tells TIME. CDC [data also show](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home) that lots of people are testing positive and that hospital visits and deaths related to COVID-19 are on the rise. What will KP.3.1.1 do next? Here’s what to know. ## What is KP.3.1.1? Like other variants that have recently become widespread in the U.S., including KP.2 and KP.3, KP.3.1.1 descended from JN.1, the Omicron relative that [caused this past winter’s surge](https://time.com/6548748/jn1-covid-variant/). Weiland considers KP.3.1.1 a “sibling” of the original FLiRT strains, because they have the same “parent” variant but are slightly different in composition. **Read More**: [_Should You Work Out if Your Muscles Are Sore?_](https://time.com/7013374/sore-muscles-rest-or-work-out/) KP.3.1.1 has some changes that have allowed it to take off, according to pre-publication [research posted online](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.16.603835v1) in July. It seems to be more infectious than KP.3 and better at evading antibodies generated both by previous infections and the COVID-19 vaccines distributed this past fall, the study says. A medication authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent COVID-19 illnesses among immunocompromised people also does not seem to work as well against KP.3.1.1 compared to prior variants, according to another pre-publication [study](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.12.607496v2) posted online in August. ## Are we going to keep seeing lots of infections? The silver lining of our COVID-filled summer is that many people have fresh immunity from recent cases. That means KP.3.1.1 doesn’t have as many vulnerable people to infect as it would have if it had become dominant a couple months ago, Weiland says. **Read More**: [_What’s So Great About Cottage Cheese?_](https://time.com/7012333/cottage-cheese-health-benefits-recipes/) “I think we’re at the peak of this summer wave,” he says. KP.3.1.1’s ascent might prolong the surge a bit, but Weiland thinks it’s unlikely to lead to a major second spike given how much immunity there currently is in the population. The exception may be among kids who are returning to school while COVID-19 is still spreading widely. There may be a noticeable [uptick in cases within that age group](https://time.com/7013025/long-covid-symptoms-kids/), Weiland says. ## Will future vaccines work against KP.3.1.1? On Aug. 22, the FDA [greenlit a new COVID-19 vaccine](https://time.com/7014073/new-covid-19-vaccine-fall-2024/) for the 2024-2025 respiratory disease season, and it was designed to target KP.2\. Since KP.2 is a close relative of KP.3.1.1, the new shot is likely to work fairly well against the currently circulating variant. These updated shots should be available to people of all ages in the coming weeks, according to the manufacturers, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna—good timing, with lots of virus still going around. Novavax is also [seeking regulatory approval](https://ir.novavax.com/press-releases/2024-06-14-Novavax-Submits-Application-to-U-S-FDA-for-Updated-Protein-based-2024-2025-Formula-COVID-19-Vaccine) of a shot meant to target JN.1, which would likely also provide some protection against its descendant KP.3.1.1. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7014374/new-covid-19-variant-kp311/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7014374/new-covid-19-variant-kp311/"},"headline":"What to Know About the KP.3.1.1 Variant of COVID-19","datePublished":"2024-08-23T15:07:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T18:11:53.149Z","description":"The newest variant is causing plenty of COVID-19 cases.","url":"https://time.com/7014374/new-covid-19-variant-kp311/","keywords":["COVID-19","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f652a0d36c23f25/698a5a319d83e80a0db9a708/covid-19-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f652a0d36c23f25/698a5a319d83e80a0db9a708/covid-19-test.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A COVID-19 test and face mask.","caption":"A COVID-19 test and face mask.","creditText":"Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7014374/new-covid-19-variant-kp311/","name":"What to Know About the KP.3.1.1 Variant of COVID-19"}}]}] ```