Overview

• The WHO reports the recombinant Omicron subvariant XFC/XFG, nicknamed “Frankenstein” or “Stratus,” now accounts for more than half of global cases.
• Argentine clinicians describe a distinctive profile of marked dysphonia or aphonia with severe throat pain, brief loss of smell, nausea or vomiting, and body aches, typically without severe disease.
• Argentina’s National Epidemiological Bulletin found XFG in 3.37% of samples from March to July, rising to more than half of sequences in weeks 25–28, indicating rapid growth similar to other countries.
• Reduced testing has shifted diagnosis toward clinical observation, and no fresh national genomic updates have followed the initial three confirmed cases in Córdoba.
• Nomivac data show extremely low 2025 Covid vaccination uptake, and CoNaIn agreed with the government to give Covid and influenza shots at the same visit for risk groups including young children, older adults, health workers, pregnant people, and those 5–64 with risk factors.