Scientists' Warning: More Contagious COVID-19 Variant Spreading

(Patria) - Scientists have warned that a more contagious subvariant of COVID, which they have named XEC, is spreading rapidly across Europe and could soon become the dominant strain.

"At this moment, XEC seems to be the next variant," wrote Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, in a post on X on Sunday, Independent reports.

Researchers predicted in August that this variant might take several weeks to several months to start spreading faster.

Topol says that the XEC subvariant of the Omicron strain will definitely dominate from now on.

"It was first reported in Berlin in June and is now spreading "quite rapidly" across Europe, North America, and Asia," said COVID data analyst Mike Honey.

Slovenia had a high infection rate with this variant in August, as more than 10 percent of COVID samples from that country contained XEC.

It is a hybrid of previously discovered Omicron subvariants - KS.1.1 and KP.3.3 - of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID. KS.1.1 is also known as the FLiRT variant.

The new COVID subvariant is characterized by mutations in the building block molecules phenylalanine (F) changed to leucine (L) and arginine (R) changed to threonine (T) on the spike protein that the virus uses to attach to human cells.

Another Omicron subvariant, KP.3.3, belongs to the FLuQE category, where the amino acid glutamine (Q) mutated to glutamic acid (E) on the spike protein, causing it to bind more effectively to human cells.

So far, more than 500 samples from 27 countries, including Poland, Norway, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Portugal, and China, have contained XEC.

Analysts point to a rapid increase in the variant in Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

Compared to previously known subvariants, XEC will now dominate, experts said.

Its symptoms are similar to those of previous COVID variants. These include fever, sore throat, cough, loss of sense of smell, loss of appetite, and body aches.

However, given that it is still a "member of the same Omicron family," experts say that vaccine adaptation and vaccination should provide sufficient protection against the development of severe illness and hospitalization.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to advise everyone to maintain personal hygiene and spend as much time as possible in fresh air.