A “highly transmissible” Covid strain has emerged and is already behind one in 25 cases in the UK, surveillance data suggests.
The strain, given the moniker XBB.1.5, has caused alarm in the US over its quick spread and a recent rise in hospitalisations. It is behind four in 10 cases in the country, up from two in 10 one week ago.
XBB is a subvariant of the Omicron BA.2 variant, and XBB.1.5 is a subvariant of XBB. It emerged as a “recombinant lineage between the second generation Omicron variants”, Professor Kei Sato wrote in a study by University of Tokyo, Hokkaido University and Kyoto University.
The Japanese researchers studied XBB’s characteristics in hamsters including transmissibility and immune resistance.
Their results suggested that the subvariant is highly transmissible and has developed resistance to immunity.
Experts have said that the strain is a “wakeup call” and could worsen the NHS crisis, which has seen the health service battered by a “twindemic” of Covid and flu.
However, officials caution that there is no indication the strain causes more severe illness than earlier variants.
Figures from the Sanger Institute, one of the UK’s largest Covid surveillance centres, shows four per cent of cases in the week to 17 December were caused by XBB.1.5. It is the first time the strain has been listed on the institute’s virus dashboard, which is updated weekly.
Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, told MailOnline that the emergence of the strain is a “wakeup call” and could exacerbate the NHS crisis.
Click the link below to continue…
