A NEW coronavirus variant called XEC has begun to spread across Europe and other parts of the world.
It was first detected in Germany in June and has reached Spain as well as the UK, France, Ireland, and the US.
The new variant is a combination of subvariants of Omicron- a highly publicised variant of Covid-19 a year or so into the pandemic.
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There are fears it could become dominant during the winter when coronavirus infections and hospitalisations normally rise but medics say the majority of cases will be mild- and vaccination will be effective.
Over a thousand cases have been reported in 29 countries and around half of the 50 US states.
Dr. Scott Roberts, an infectious disease expert at Yale Medicine said that ‘the increase in respiratory infections globally coincides with the spread of the variant, whose speed of transmission seems to be greater compared to previous strains in some parts of Europe’.
The World Health Organisation(WHO) has not yet classified XEC as a ‘variant of concern’, but confirmed that it is ‘under surveillance’.
That’s a term used by the WHO warn public health authorities that the SARS-CoV-2 strain might may require attention and surveillance.
The main aim of this category is to investigate whether it may pose an additional threat to global public health compared to other variants that are circulating.
Dr. William Schaffner, of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee, noted that XEC shares many of the characteristics of previous Omicron strains.
In article in New Scientist, he said: “You can think of these new variants as their great-grandchildren or grandchildren.”
The new strain can spread easily but crucially causes less severe problems than early SARS-CoV-2 variants, which means that most cases are likely to be mild.
There is however a risk of complications amongst older people or those who have weakened immune systems.
The good news is that current vaccines should continue to offer good protection.
The updated versions fight the Omicron subvariants, and since XEC is part of that group, the jabs should be effective against the new strain.
So despite its quick spread, experts stress that there is no reason to be alarmed.
