Over 40 per cent Covid cases in the United States in the week of December 31 were of Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, according to Epidemiologist Dr Eric Feigl-Ding, who cited data from the US Center for Disease Control (US CDC) to lay the claim.
According to Dr Eric Feigl-Ding, the new variant is more immune evasive and better at infecting as compared to its predecessors.
“Ironically, probably the worst variant that the world is facing right now is actually XBB,” Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Recombinants of the BA.2 variant, XBB and XBB.1.5 together accounted for 44.1 per cent of the total cases in the country for the week ended December 31. For the week ended December 24, XBB.1.5 had made up 21.7 per cent of the total cases.
The XBB variant has been driving up cases in parts of Asia, including Singapore. While some experts have said it is more transmissible, it has not resulted in a surge in hospitalisations. India has also reported its first case of Omicron variant ‘XXB.1.5’, responsible for the surge in Covid cases in New York.
The US CDC started reporting data for the two subvariants separately this week, and the updated numbers reflect that XBB accounted for 3.6 per cent of the total cases compared with 4.2 per cent in the previous week.
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