Just as people were beginning to come to terms with the inherent risks of the BF7 variant of SARS-CoV-2, which is driving the Covid-19 wave in China, a super-variant XBB15 has emerged, with the potential to become a globally dominant variant in the coming months, potentially leading to another round of Covid infections among people.
The XBB15 variant of SARS-CoV-2 is currently responsible for a wave of Covid infections in multiple cities across the United States, and two cases of this mutation, one each in Gujarat and Maharashtra, have already been reported in India.
Due to XBB15’s high potential to infect people who have already developed immunity to it through vaccines and natural infection, geneticists have unofficially dubbed it ‘Kraken,’ after the mythical sea monster of Norway.
The XBB15 variant has been described as the most immunity-evasive escape variant to date, and it appears to be spreading much faster than previous variants, causing an increase in hospitalizations in multiple cities across the US.
According to expert geneticists who have been tracking Omicron mutations, the XBB15 variant is currently the worst in the world, compared to China’s BF 7.
“Hospitalizations due to XBB15 are already approaching the last winter’s crazy Omicron levels. These numbers do not include Veterans Affairs hospitals and it is also missing several states. So it could be worse,” well-known epidemiologist and health economist, Dr Eric Feigl-Ding on Twitter, said.
“To be clear, XBB15 is by far the worst of both worlds in terms of both existing immunity escape and binding to ACE2 receptor, allowing it enhanced ability infect human cells. This is why it is nicknamed The Kraken and is also called as a super-variant,” Dr Eric said.
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The consortium of genome sequencing laboratories in India (INSACOG) has already urged people to follow Covid appropriate behavior, stating that “the community need not panic, and adherence to corona appropriate behaviors is recommended in light of the ongoing festivities.”
The XBB variant, which is a recombinant (fusion) of two different BA2 variants, was first reported in India. Later, the XBB variant in New York appears to have evolved into the XBB15 Covid mutation. Geneticists worldwide believe that XBB.1.5 has the greatest growth advantage of all the variants in the current mix.
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