A new variant, even more contagious and why not more severe: this is what the scientific community fears. Well, it might actually exist. In this article, the editorial staff of Objeko, will tell you more about this famous XE variant, which scares everyone. Are you ready to know everything? Well, let’s go.
Several variants appear
After two and a half years of health crisis, the Covid epidemic seems to be coming to an end. Finally, let’s say that more and more countries are learning to live with it. But as everyone raises their measures restriction, experts worry about soaring contamination figures. The fault in particular with the different variants. The first is called Deltacron and was discovered at the beginning of March in France. It results from a mixture between the Delta variant and one of the Omicron sub-variants (BA.1).
Sequenced and identified by the UK Health Safety Agency and the Welcome Sanger Institute, XE is the combination of two Omicron strains: BA.1 and BA.2. And this is what we are going to talk to you about today. What we can tell you is that cases have been found in the UK and Israel. The first, in particular, date from January 19. And since then, more than 600 sequences have been reported and confirmed.
XE, a more contagious variant?
For the moment, the XE variant, only represented only a tiny fraction of the cases worldwide. However, the first estimates indicate a community growth rate advantage of about 10% compared to BA.2. In other words, that means it could be around 43% more transmissible than the original Omicron. But all this requires further confirmation. Regarding the symptoms, they resemble those we are used to seeing.
As we told you previously, the symptoms are identical to the other variants. In fact, people infected with CAR, showed mild symptoms of fever, headache and muscle aches and did not require any special medical attention. All of these recombinant variants, including the smaller clusters, should be monitored closely for signs of growth and attempts should be made to isolate and characterize them if possible. Don’t worry, if we have any news, we won’t hesitate to tell you everything.
Coronavirus: A deteriorating situation?
The health situation has deteriorated in several countries due to the spread of more contagious variants. In France, this Thursday, March 31, the number of patients hospitalized due to a Covid infection continued to increase, according to daily figures published by the authorities. Thus, the hospitals had 21,922 sick Thursday, against 21,688 the day before and 20,654 a week earlier. Among them, there are 1,763 new admissions, against 1,338 last Thursday. Regarding the number of critical care patients, the number is 1,551 (including 160 admissions), against 1,546 the day before and 1,523 a week before.