According to the UK Health Security Agency, the Omicron XE variant has so far been detected in 637 British patients.
University Putra Malaysia medical epidemiologist Malina Osman believes a new COVID-19 variant has been identified in Thailand, Taiwan, and India.
The XE variant contains a mix of the highly infectious omicron BA.1 strain, which emerged in late 2021, and the new BA.2 variant, currently the UK dominant variant.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently issued a warning against a new XE variant of Omicron. It is considered the most contagious strain of COVID-19. This variant does not match other coronavirus types that have been rapidly spreading in Shanghai.
The WHO reports that the XE variant is 10% more transmissible than the BA.2 subvariant. Notably, the latter is the dominant Omicron variant in the US.
