A new and more infectious variant of COVID-19 – XEC – is spreading rapidly in 15 countries.
Health Update: First identified in Germany in June, XEC is a combination of the KS.1.1 and KP.3.3 variants. According to reports, it has overtaken the previously dominant FLiRT strain.
Belonging to the Omicron variant, XEC is currently spreading “quite rapidly” across Europe, North America and Asia. So far, about 550 samples have been reported from 27 countries, including Poland, Norway, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Portugal, the US and China.
“At this point, the XEC variant is most likely to become the next dominant variant,” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California, US, said in a recent post on X.
According to experts, XEC has some new mutations that may help it spread this autumn. However, vaccination can help prevent severe cases.
Melbourne data expert Mike Honey mentioned in a post on X that the XEC variant is “a potential challenge for the currently dominant variants”. Honey pointed out that XEC has already overtaken other variants such as FLiRT, FLuQU and DEFLuQE.
This variant produces symptoms similar to common diseases such as influenza and cold.
Although most people will recover within a few weeks, some may take longer to recover and some may also have to be hospitalized.
According to the UK’s NHS, the XEC variant produces flu-like symptoms, including high temperature or chills, persistent cough, loss or change in sense of taste or smell, difficulty breathing, fatigue, body aches, loss of appetite, etc.