The world has been dealing with COVID since the pandemic set in back in 2020, and while we know more about the disease, it still hasn’t gone away.

This year is no different, with new COVID variants arriving on the scene, and those variants have been taking their toll on Massachusetts residents.

Meanwhile, health officials are still advocating for staying up on vaccinations, as they say that is one of the best ways to fight the virus.

Here’s what to know about the new COVID variants.

What are the new COVID variants?

The new variants are called the FLiRT strains of the virus. There are three variants of FLiRT.

They “accounted for the majority of COVID cases in the U.S. at the beginning of July. One of them, KP.3, was responsible for 36.9% of COVID infections in the United States, KP.2 made up 24.4%, and KP.1.1 accounted for 9.2% of cases,” according to a Yale Medicine study.

There is also another new strain – not FLiRT – called “LB.1,” strain, which is similar to the FLiRT variants.

“But with an additional mutation, (LB.1) has attracted attention as well,” Yale Medicine stated. “As summer began, it was responsible for 14.9% of COVID cases.”

More: COVID-19 emergency room visits, deaths are up. Should you be worried?

Are the new FLiRT variants worse than other strains?

According to Yale Medicine, “There is no conclusive information yet about whether a COVID illness will be more severe with the new variants or how symptoms might change.”

More: COVID-19 variant KP.3 remains dominant in US, rises to 36.9% of cases: See latest CDC data

What’s the COVID situation in Massachusetts now?

The latest data from the Massachusetts Department of Health covers from June 23 to June 29. During that time, there were 1,151 confirmed cases of COVID in the state, with 99,565 for the entire spring and summer.

In that same time period, the state reported six confirmed deaths, with 985 confirmed COVID deaths for the season.

What are the best remedies for COVID?

Doctors say vaccination is still a key for defense against COVID. Other ways to defend against the disease include:

What are symptoms of the new variant?

According to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, symptoms of the new variants include:

• Fever or chills
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Congestion or runny nose
• Headache
• Muscle aches
• Difficulty breathing
• Fatigue

MASSACHUSETTS — The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for almost all of Massachusetts, warning of the possibility Tuesday evening of tornadoes, hail and high winds.

A line of storms will swing rapidly across New England from the northeast, according to the weather service. The severe thunderstorm watch will be in effect until 1 a.m. Wednesday.

“Primary threats include scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph possible. Isolated large hail events to 1 inch in diameter possible. A tornado or two possible,” the NWS Storm Prediction Center said in a Tuesday afternoon forecast.

A severe thunderstorm watch means that residents should be on alert for potential severe weather. But patches of nasty weather were already popping up Tuesday evening.

The weather service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for areas around Greenfield, warning of 60 mph winds and hail.

Severe weather may also be a possibility on Wednesday evening. The entire state east of Worcester has a level 1 “marginal” risk of severe weather tomorrow evening.

MILFORD, MA — Milford residents are running their air conditions more often than in the previous two decades to remain comfortable during hot summer days, according to an interactive map and analysis from The Washington Post.

And it’s only going to get worse, according to projections through the year 2060. In Milford, here’s how heat indices and actual air temperatures have changed and are projected to change:

• 1981-2000: 62 summer days requiring air conditioning, with an average heat index of 68 degrees and average air temperature of 68 degrees.
• 2001-2022: 68 summer days requiring air conditioning, an increase of six days with an average heat index of 70 degrees and an average air temperature of 70 degrees.
• Projected for 2060: 83 summer days requiring air conditioning, with a projected average heat index of 77 degrees and air temperature of 75 degrees.

The analysis is based on the heat index, the feel-like temperature that combines the air temperature and relative humidity, rather than air temperature alone. A 65-degree Fahrenheit daily mean temperature was used to capture cooling needs throughout the day in cities nationwide.

The Post cited 2022 research in setting the 65-degree heat index threshold to determine air conditioning requirements. Any day surpassing that threshold was counted as a day requiring air conditioning for all locations annually, The Post said. The news outlet was assisted in the analysis by Colin Raymond, a UCLA research scientist. For the projected 2060 period, The Post used forecast air temperature and specific humidity from the NASA Center for Climate Simulation.

This year has so far been the hottest summer on record for millions of Americans from California to Maine as heat records fall around the country, especially in the U.S. Southwest as the world grows hotter with more greenhouse gasses added to the atmosphere.

Massachusetts residents can expect the rest of the summer to most likely feature above-average temperatures, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

During this week’s heat wave, temperatures should peak on Wednesday — when heat indices could be at 100 or above — before dropping back into the 80s on Thursday.

Since record-keeping began, some of the hottest temperatures worldwide have been seen in the last 10 to 15 years. Randall Cerveny, a professor at Arizona State University, told The Associated Press the heat records are the clearest possible signal that humans are altering the climate.

In addition to the U.S. Southwest, Temperatures in India and the Middle East have been exceedingly hot this year, he said.

“It feels like the air is a blanket of just hotness that is enveloping you,” he said of the heat, which killed at least 37 people in the United States in July, CNN reported.

It’s been the hottest summer on record to date for around 100 US cities from Maine to California. Heat is suspected in the deaths of least 37 people in the United States in July, a number experts said is likely underestimated due to the amount of time it takes to attribute a death to heat, nature’s most prolific weather killer.

The Associated Press contributed to this report