Beware of New COVID19 Mutant Strain XE – WHO Warns

Beware of new Covid19 Mutant Strain XE, WHO has revealed, the 2nd Omicron Recombinant Variant XE has to be in the watch list, this comes after the Omicron, Delta recombinants variant.

World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of the 2nd COVID mutant strain XE (hybrid strain of 2 Omicron subvariants) stating that early studies indicate that its growth rate advantage is ~10% as compared to BA.2. So far, three hybrid or recombinant viruses have been detected – XD, XE, XF – (two are combination of Delta and Omicron and the third is the hybrid strain of 2 Omicron subvariants).

A UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recently revealed in a study that currently as many are 3 hybrid COVID variants are circulating. The two different combinations of Delta and BA.1 are XD and XF. The third is XE.

XD is the new name for the French Delta x BA.1 lineage. It contains the Spike protein of BA.1 and the rest of the genome from Delta. It currently comprises several 10s of sequences.

XF is a UK Delta x BA.1 lineage. It has the Spike and structural proteins from BA.1 but the 5′ part of its genome from Delta. It comprises several tens of sequences currently.

XE is a large UK BA.1 x BA.2 lineage. It has the Spike and structural proteins from BA.2 but the 5′ part of its genome from BA.1. It comprises several hundred sequences at present.

After Omicron, Delta recombinant, WHO Warns of New Covid19 Mutant Strain XE

The World Health Organization issued a report yesterday with some preliminary findings about XE, reports said.

“The XE recombinant was first detected in the United Kingdom on 19 January and >600 sequences have been reported and confirmed since,” reads the WHO document. “Early-day estimates indicate a community growth rate advantage of ~10% as compared to BA.2, however this finding requires further confirmation.”