Key Points
- The XEC COVID-19 variant has emerged in Australia.
- In Australia, 329 footage collected from August 26 to September 22 was uploaded to AusTrakk.
- Experts say this variant is no more concerning than the previous ones.
A new variant of COVID-19, stemming from two previous variants, has reached Australia, as experts warn it’s probably not the one to be most concerned about.
In Australia, 329 sequences collected from August 26 to September 22 were uploaded to AusTrakk, Australia’s national COVID genomic surveillance platform.
Current vaccines still provide effective protection against the serious consequences of circulating variants, Lara Herrero, head of virology and infectious diseases research at Griffith University, wrote in The Conversation.
XEC currently accounts for around 20 percent of cases in Germany, 12 percent in the United Kingdom and around 6 percent in the United States.
It has spread to more than 27 countries in Europe, North America and Asia.
What do we know about XEC?
XEC was first detected in Berlin, Germany, in June, Professor Adrian Esterman, chair of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of South Australia.
“It’s gaining traction pretty quickly,” he said.
The XEC variant is a so-called recombinant of two earlier variants: KS.1.1 and KP.3.3.
Esterman explained that the JN.1 variant represented a significant change from previous XBB variants and had more than 30 different mutations.
Later mutations of JN.1 also known as KP.2 and KP.3. The currently dominant variant worldwide, KP.3.1.1, is a mutation of FluQE called DeFluQe.
“What has happened now is that there is a FLirT subvariant, KS.1.1, and a FluQE subvariant, KP.3.3, which have combined… and the viruses have actually exchanged their genes,” Esterman said.
The virus “will continue to change”
Esterman predicts that the XEC variant will eventually take over from the current world leader, KP.3.1.1, but said there is another variant on the horizon called MV.1.
“It appears that XEC is not the only dominant subvariant to appear over the next few months – it appears that it could be matched by MV.1, with a battle between the two,” he said.
In any case, he believes there is no reason for alarm.
“It’s not unexpected at all, and I don’t think there’s anything that we should be overly concerned about, other than the fact that it could potentially lead to a new wave. And that means more infections, more hospitalizations and more deaths.”
