A new powerful mutation of the coronavirus, Covid XEC, is rapidly spreading around the world, and early evidence suggests it will become dominant as temperatures gradually drop in the Northern Hemisphere over the coming months.
“It is just now starting worldwide. It will take a few months before it establishes itself and starts causing a wave [of cases],” a researcher from Scripps Research in California told the LA Times. Its spread is still in the early stages in the U.S., and “it will take several weeks, two months before it becomes dominant globally.”
The XEC strain of the coronavirus was first identified last June in Germany and has since been detected in 15 countries across three continents.
What is the new XEC subvariant of the coronavirus?
The XEC is a combination of the variants KS.1.1 (which belongs to the FLiRT category) and KP.3.3 (also known as the FLuQE variant), and infections are increasing at a rate of 3.8% per day or 27% per week, making it one of the fastest-spreading subvariants of the coronavirus to date.
Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, head of the Infectious Diseases department at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California, emphasized that health experts will continue to monitor the evolution of the spread of the new subvariant of the coronavirus in the coming weeks.
According to her, cases of XEC have already been reported in Western Europe, including Germany and the Netherlands, and it is spreading rapidly.
Symptoms
Common symptoms include high fever, cough, loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath, and feelings of fatigue or exhaustion.
Most patients will recover in a few weeks, but some will require a longer period, and some may need to be hospitalized.
Additionally, symptoms that typically resemble a cold are also included, such as headache, sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, as well as loss of appetite, diarrhea, and malaise.
What experts are saying
As Matina Pagoni stated on Mega, the XE “has mild symptoms, different compared to other subvariants. As Germany tells us, the FLiRT subvariant is leaving, and the new one, ‘XEC,’ is coming. Germans are alarmed; this subvariant has been present there since May. It hasn’t reached here yet,” she initially said.
“Here we still have FLiRT; it is not the new one. It closes the throat and causes fever. Because there is a ‘panic’ in Germany always, we remain calm and will handle it,” Ms. Pagoni emphasized.
Although XEC has started to spread, it has not yet been recorded separately in the U.S. due to limited cases. It is expected to be added to the subvariants monitored by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) when it exceeds 1% of total cases.
Experts say that ongoing vaccination and booster doses of the coronavirus vaccines should provide adequate protection against severe illness or the need for hospitalization.