Covid officials say new ‘Arcturus’ variant could be linked to conjunctivitis

California report says variant XBB.1.16 is contagious but should not prompt concerns about a return to early pandemic stages

A new Covid variant that some public health officials have suggested could be linked with conjunctivitis, or pink eye, has set off minor alarms about the virus despite a continual decrease in the number of cases and deaths.

Infectious disease experts, however, say it is part of a normal trajectory for such a virus.