The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning about a novel mutant Omicron ‘XE’ variation that may be more transmissible than any previous Covid-19 strain.
According to reports, this new variety is a recombinant strain, which means it is a mutant hybrid of the two earlier strains of the Omicron type, BA.1 and BA.2. The new version is 10% more infectious than the BA.2 subvariant. As per WHO, BA.2, a subvariant of the Omicron strain, is the most dominant strain of the virus, accounting for 86 percent of all sequenced cases.
While XE only accounts for a tiny percentage of infections, its extraordinarily high transmissibility suggests that it may soon become the most prominent strain.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released a paper summarising its preliminary findings on this potentially new strain of concern. ‘The XE recombinant (BA.1-BA.2), was first detected in the UK on January 19 and less than 600 sequences have been reported and confirmed since. Early-day estimates indicate a community growth rate advantage of 10 percent as compared to BA.2, however, this finding requires further confirmation’, the report said.
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According to the World Health Organization, XE will be classified as part of the Omicron variant until substantial changes in transmission and disease features, including severity.
‘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’, the report further added.
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