“At this moment we have no data to say that Xe is also present in Italy”, the recombinant between the Omicron 1 and 2 variants of Sars-CoV-2, reported in the United Kingdom. “No case of Xe has come to our observation, while a few sporadic cases of Omicron 3 have been detected, which at the moment are of no interest whatsoever” in a context in which “Omicron 2 is clearly taking over 1”. Arnaldo Caruso, president of the Italian Society of Virology (Siv-Isv), explains this to time.news Salute, confirming that on the ‘variant mix’ between BA.1 and BA.2 “there is no cause for concern for now. the data released by the World Health Organization, according to which Xe could be 10% more transmissible than Omicron 2, is absolutely preliminary and to be confirmed, as specified by WHO itself “.
In a world without borders, “we cannot exclude” that Xe has gone out of the UK, “but at the moment no case has come to our attention in Italy – reiterates the expert, professor of microbiology and clinical microbiology at the University of Brescia and director of the laboratory of microbiology of Asst Spedali Civili – The new flash survey conducted on samples collected yesterday, April 4 “, coordinated by the Higher Institute of Health with the support of the Bruno Kessler Foundation and in collaboration with the Ministry, Regions and Autonomous Provinces , “despite the limited numbers it will give us a more precise idea of how the virus is evolving” and its ‘park of variants’. If the last survey gave Omicron 2 at 44.1%, and above 50% in 7 regions / pa, from the new survey “it will emerge with even more force” according to Caruso “that this more transmissible sub-variant is exceeding 1. And it is this is what worries us now, because as we know Omicron 2 also ‘holes’ the vaccine a little more: it does not nullify its protective effects on severe forms of Covid-19, but it also manages to infect people who have been vaccinated or who have already had the ‘natural infection “.
All the other variants, sub-variants or ‘chimera variants’, including “the Delta-Omicron which turned out to actually exist – recalls the specialist – and not being as it initially seemed a laboratory artifact”, should be considered for now no more than “a scientific curiosity, certainly to be monitored carefully, but like all the other ‘moves’ of Sars-CoV-2 in general. And even Xe, now, must not cause alarm – repeats the number one of Italian virologists – We have not observed it , we still have to study it and we still need to understand what it will mean over time “.