A new version of the Omicron Covid variant has been detected in the United Kingdom – but experts say it accounts for about one percent of cases and is not more severe than its predecessors.
The XE variant, as it has been titled, is a combination of the BA.1 Omicron strain – which caused massive global outbreaks in late 2021 – and the recently budding BA.2 ‘stealth’ variant.
Variants like this are described at ‘recombinant’ by experts, as it is effectively a combination of two different types of viruses.
The first case of the XE variant was detected in January, and as of March 22, 637 cases of the strain had been sequenced in the UK.
No other country on earth has found a case of the variant within its borders.
The most recent data from UK public health officials finds that the new strain only accounts for one percent of cases in the nation, and they do not believe the variant is more severe than its predecessors.
The XE variant, which is a combination between the BA.1 and BA.2 strains of Omicron, now makes up 1% of cases in the UK. It has not been detected in any other nation. Pictured: A woman in Jericho, New York, receives a COVID-19 test
The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that the new strain is ten percent more infectious than the stealth variant, which would make it the most infectious version of the virus known.
The WHO, which is often on the more cautious side of pandemic related matters, is also not showing much concern about the recombinant variant just yet.
‘XE belongs to the Omicron variant until significant differences in transmission and disease characteristics, including severity, may be reported,’ the agency wrote in a weekly epidemiological report late last month.
‘WHO continues to closely monitor and assess the public health risk associated with recombinant variants, alongside other SARS-CoV-2 variants, and will provide updates as further evidence becomes available.’
This is not the first recombinant strain to arise in recent months, and previous versions have failed to make much impact.
The ‘stealth’ variant (pink) now makes up 72% of active COVID-19 cases in the U.S., the CDC revealed
Earlier this year, the ‘Deltacron’ variant, a combination of Omicron and the Delta strain that dominated the second half of 2021 in the U.S., was discovered across the world.
Like XE, it also was first detected in the UK, and eventually a very small amount of cases were sequenced in America as well.
Deltacron was overwhelmed by Omicron – both BA.1 and BA.2 – and failed to make much of an impact in the nation.
While XE has not reached the U.S. yet, the rise of the ‘stealth’ variant is recent weeks has proved to be a cause for concern for some officials.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed Tuesday that the strain – which is 30 percent more infectious than BA.1 but just as mild – now makes up 72 percent of sequences cases in the U.S.
Health officials are not particularly worried about XE, and America will likely be able to control it due to its high vaccination rate. Pictured: A woman in Chelsea, Massachusetts, receives a shot of a COVID-19 vaccine
Omicron as a whole, including BA.1, still makes up every single sequenced case in America.
Americans will likely be able to weather the new variant, though. Per most recent CDC data of April 3, the nation is averaging 25,074 cases per day, and 572 deaths per day, both among the lowest totals of the pandemic so far.
Data from the agency is usually not as up to date as other Covid tracking methods, though.
America’s vaccine rollout is among the strongest in the world as well, with 88 percent of adults having received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 75 percent fully vaccinated.
Nearly 100 million Americans have also received their COVID-19 vaccine booster shot.
