A "more contagious" variant of COVID-19, XEC, is spreading more rapidly across Europe and has affected people in 27 countries, indicating that it could become a dominant strain, according to a BBC report. The new variant was first identified in Germany in June 2024 and has since emerged in the US, Denmark, and several other countries. The new XEC variant is a hybrid of the earlier omicron subvariants KS.1.1 and KP.3.3. According to The Independent, 500 samples from 27 countries, including Poland, Norway, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Portugal, and China, have been found to contain XEC. It is also speculated that the variant has grown strongly in countries like Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. Professor Francois Balloux, director of the Genetics Institute at University College London, told the BBC that although XEC has a "slight transmission advantage" over other recent Covid variants, vaccines should still offer good protection. However, he added that XEC may become the dominant subvariant over the winter. The XEC Covid variant is a new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus." While research is ongoing, initial findings suggest that it shares similarities with previous variants but may have unique characteristics in terms of transmissibility or immune evasion," said Dr Haricharan G, senior consultant physician, HoD, internal medicine, Gleneagles Hospitals, Lakdi Ka Pul, Hyderabad.
