According to WHO, Omicron’s new mutant variant “XE” could be the most transmissible version of Covid

The CDC announced this week that the BA.2 Omicron variant, which is reportedly 30% more contagious than the original BA.1 Omicron strain, has become dominant among newly established cases in the United States. This is a surprising increase for the option which was less than 1% of all sequences. Still in January. But when Americans hear about BA.2, there’s already a newer, even more contagious option.

There are actually three new options that have received designations. According to information recently released by the UK Health Services Agency report, two, called XD and XF, are delta and BA.1, a combination of so-called “deltacron” strains that have been talked about for months but have not been reported. significantly overgrown.

XD is represented in several European countries but has not been identified in the UK, according to the report. XF triggered a small cluster in the UK, but was not found there after February 15th. An option of more concern appears to be the XE name.

Like the other two newcomers, XE is a recombinant strain, which means it consists of two previously different variants. But this is not a deltacron mix. The XE actually consists of the original Omicron (BA.1) and the more recent Omicron (BA.2) which occupied the United States.

The Omicron BA.2 variant is now dominant in the United States; It blows strongly in the northeast

The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday released a preliminary report on XE.

“Recombinant XE was first discovered in the UK on 19 January and more than 600 sequences have been recorded and confirmed since then,” the World Health Organization said in a statement. “Initial estimates indicate an approximately 10% advantage in community growth rate over BA.2, although this finding needs further confirmation.”

It is becoming increasingly difficult to confirm more, according to the World Health Organization, that this week has registered concerns over what it calls “the recent significant drop in SARS-CoV-2 tests by several member states.” Data is gradually becoming less representative, less timely and less robust. “It hinders our collective ability to track where the virus is, how it spreads and how it develops – information and analysis that remain crucial to effectively ending the acute phase of a pandemic.”

The Covid BA.2 Omicron option will now likely account for the majority of new cases in Los Angeles

At a briefing last week, the UK Health Services Agency reinforced some of the evidence in the WHO report and urges caution in drawing hasty conclusions. One difference between the two documents is that WHO data and analyzes appear to be more recent.

From the UK HSA report:

XE shows evidence of community transmission in England, although it is currently less than 1% of all consecutive cases. XE’s early growth rates did not differ significantly from BA.2, but using the most recent data as of March 16, 2022, XE has a 9.8% higher growth rate than BA.2. Since this estimate has not remained consistent with the addition of new data, it cannot yet be interpreted as an estimate of the growth benefit for the recombinant. The numbers were too small to be analyzed by region by the recombinant XE.

To be clear, XE only covers a small fraction of cases worldwide. This may change, as XE is considered to be around 10% more contagious than BA.2, which is already more contagious. That means it could be 43% more contagious than the original Micron, which destroyed the Earth last winter.

But now a new wave of dominant BA.2 infections has not been implemented, although the restrictions have been relaxed. So hopefully the XE trend, if it breaks BA.2, will be similar. Only time and good supervision will tell.