As COVID-19 begins to subside in India and the world. New report tells us to be more patient, Corona is going to be around for some more time. The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning against a new mutant ‘Xe’ variant of Omicron, this new variant can become a “variant of concern’. As per WHO, the new variant can transmit at a much faster rate compared to any other variant of COVID-19 previously seen. Earlier this year another wave of omicron variant peaked around 23 January
As Express.co.uk reports, this new variant of omicron is a recombinant strain, meaning it is a mutant hybrid of the previous two versions of the Omicron variant, BA.1 and BA.2, which has spread around the world.
the new mutant hybrid strain of Omicron is 10 percent more transmissible than the BA.2 subvariant, which is already the most infectious. Many people did not suffer severe symptoms during the Omicron wave due to the fact that the omicron was milder compared to the 2021 delta strain.
According to the WHO, BA.2, a subvariant of the Omicron strain, is the dominant strain of the virus, accounting for 86 percent of all sequenced cases.
While the Xe variant currently accounts for only a small fraction of cases, its extremely high transmission potential could mean that it could become the most dominant strain in the near future.
“This new form of the coronavirus, recombinant (BA.1-BA.2), was first detected in the UK on 19 January, with fewer than 600 sequences reported and confirmed,” the report said.
The global health body noted that XE would be classified as a part of the Omron variant unless they could detect “significant differences in transmission and disease characteristics, including severity”.
According to the report, “WHO will continue to closely monitor and assess this new COVID variant, and will provide updates as further evidence becomes available.”
