Just days after the BA.2 strain of coronavirus achieved world dominance, international health officials are already turning their attention to a new, mutant variant believed to be even more transmissible – XE.
XE is a combination of the first form of omicron to spread across the globe, BA.1, and so-called “stealth omicron,” the subvariant BA.2, that is now dominant.
The highly transmissible XE strain was first detected in the United Kingdom on January 19, according to the WHO document, and there have been more than 600 documented cases in the UK since.