New 'more contagious' Covid variant spreads through Europe

[Sly Saint]

A new 'stronger' Covid variant is spreading across Europe and the world, as experts warn it is 'just getting started'.

The XEC strain was first detected in Germany in June and has been identified in 15 countries across three continents.

According to experts, the strain could become the dominant variant within months when the weather gets cold.

Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California Eric Topol said XEC is 'just getting started now around the world and here'.

Speaking to the LA Times, he added: 'And that's going to take many weeks, a couple months, before it really takes hold and starts to cause a wave.

'But it's months off from getting into high levels.'

Regional chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California Dr Elizabeth Hudson said health experts will continue to monitor the variant in the coming weeks.

Dr Hudson said that XEC has been reported in western Europe including Germany and the Netherlands and it is spreading quickly.

New 'more contagious' Covid variant spreads through Europe (msn.com)

 

[SNT Gatchaman]

There's also MV.1 on the radar. From Mike Honey —

New variant MV.1 is spreading quite rapidly, and looks a potential next challenger against the now-dominant DeFLuQE variants (KP.3.1.1 and descendants), perhaps rivalling XEC.

MV.1 first appeared in Maharashtra, India in late June. The story might've ended there, but after almost a month the next sample was recorded. It has since spread quite rapidly to 9 countries on 4 continents. Around 40 samples have now been reported.

MV.1 is descended from JN.1.49 by way of MB.1.1.1. That long evolutionary path has been most successful in samples from India, without any notable success elsewhere.

MV.1 reverts the Spike K478T mutation to the ancestral (Wuhan) type.

Globally, MV.1 is showing a competitive growth advantage of 4.4% per day (31% per week) over JN.1.* + DeFLuQE variants. This is just a shade slower than XEC's current global pace.

https://aus.social/@mike_honey_/113138674310132772

 

[Arnie Pye]

Although I completely understand why people are worried about how contagious new Covid variants are, my personal interest would be in how severe they are but that hardly ever gets mentioned.