The new Corona variant XEC is spreading rapidly in Germany. What is known so far about the variant currently circulating.
Autumn is cold season. And the number of corona infections in Germany is also increasing again. According to the current weekly report from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the virus variant XEC is displacing the previously predominant line KP.3.1.1. What is known about the variant so far.
XEC was first detected in Germany in June and has since spread rapidly. The virus is a sub-variant of Omicron and was created by the merger of the two existing Omicron sub-variants KP.3.3 and KS.1.1. According to experts from the Yale School of Medicine in the USA, such a merger can occur when a person is infected with two different strains of the virus.
Another difference is that the XEC strain has an additional mutation on its spike protein. This enables the viruses to dock onto human cells and penetrate them. However, it is currently not clear how this change might affect an infected person.
Overall, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) assumes that XEC could have a growth advantage over other Covid variants. The experts from the Yale School of Medicine also suspect that XEC is more transmissible.
Despite the possibly better transferability of the XEC variant, the RKI gives the all-clear. The risk to public health from the virus variants under observation remains low. An “increase in the severity of the disease” could not be observed, according to the weekly report.
The symptoms of a Covid infection under the XEC strain are also unchanged. According to the US Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the following symptoms may still occur if you become infected:
It is impossible to guarantee 100 percent agreement between a vaccine and a circulating variant if a virus is constantly mutating, explains Dr. Scott Roberts, an infectious disease specialist at Yale School of Medicine. But the current mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which target KP.2, as well as the latest Novavax vaccine, which targets JN.1, should also provide protection against XEC, he adds.
“Although XEC is recombinant, it consists of two omicron subvariants that should be targeted by the updated vaccines,” says Dr. Roberts.
According to the latest weekly report from the RKI (September 30th to October 6th, 2024), the current corona incidence is around 1,100 new diseases per 100,000 inhabitants per week. Corona accounted for 11 percent of all acute respiratory diseases. Other respiratory viruses are also widespread and at “comparatively high levels,” the report said. Rhinoviruses make up the largest proportion at 32 percent.
Overall, around 8.7 percent of people in Germany were infected with an acute respiratory disease in the week up to October 6th. This corresponds to around 7.3 million infections. The group of adults aged 35 to 59 was particularly affected.