Another new variant of Covid is spreading around the world and could reach Australia before Christmas, so Australians, especially those travelling overseas, are being warned to be vigilant.
The “potentially more infectious” XEC strain was first detected in Germany in June and has since been identified in 27 cases.
Experts believe the strain could become the dominant variant within a few months as the weather turns colder in the Northern Hemisphere.
“XEC is a combination of two other subvariants,” Australian infectious disease expert Dr Paul Griffin told Daily Mail Australia on Monday.
It is a descendant of the famous Omicron Covid strain and a recombinant variant of KS.1.1 and KP.3.3.
“It’s still quite early, s“It’s a little premature to speculate on symptoms or severity, etc., at this point,” Dr. Griffin said.
“But what we’ve had in countries where it emerged early is that it appears to have a significant growth advantage, which would suggest that it’s likely to be immune, evasive and potentially more infectious.”
For this reason, the medical community “is paying close attention to see if it could be the next subvariant that causes another increase in activity,” he said.
Another new Covid variant is spreading around the world and could reach Australia before Christmas, so Australians, especially those travelling overseas, are being advised to be vigilant. File image
Dr. Griffin said it is not yet known whether XEC is It will require a change in the composition of Covid vaccines.
‘The vaccination plan at this stage is quite complicated. The World Health Organization and virtually all other regulatory agencies agreed that JN.1 was the new vaccine.
‘The United States came out and then said they wanted a KP.2 vaccine (but) the rest of the world is either rolling out or is in the process of rolling out updated JN.1 boosters, aAnd that’s what we’ll have here,” he said.
But if XEC turns out to be a very significant subvariant, work will be done to address it in an updated vaccine.
As for when XEC is expected to arrive in Australia, Dr Griffin said:There is a tendency to look at what we have experienced in the last year or two and expect the same thing to happen.
“But the most important thing about Covid is that it remains quite unpredictable.”There are a lot of factors contributing to why we are seeing an increase in waves of transmission.
“Part of it is the subvariant, but it’s also related to other factors,” he said.
Experts say one of the reasons we have a surge in Covid cases in Australia in the run-up to Christmas is because the other side of the world is in the middle of its winter, where conditions are conducive to a surge in transmission.
“The world is once again a very small place, and that activity is being imported into our country,” Dr. Griffin said.
The “potentially more infectious” XEC strain was first detected in Germany in June and has since been identified in 27 cases. File image
Australian infectious disease expert Dr Paul Griffin (pictured) said “XEC is a recombinant of two other subvariants”
“We could have another wave of increased transmission in the coming weeks or it could be months until we see that.”
The Department of Health said that as of August 29, no sequences from the XEC variant had been reported to Australia’s genomic surveillance system.
“Continued evolution of SARS-CoV-2 lineages is expected and the Interim Australian Centre for Disease Control continues to closely monitor the emergence of new Covid-19 variants, both within Australia and internationally,” a spokesperson said.
‘In Australia, states and territories are conducting targeted genomic sequence sampling to ensure we remain vigilant and responsive to emerging variants.’