For Xe, the World Health Organization notes that early estimates suggest it has a 10% advantage in transmissibility over BA.2, but “the discovery requires further confirmation.”
Omicron 2 dominant variant from February
On a global level, the BA.2 variant started to gain ground in the first weeks of the year, only to overtake BA.1 in the second half of February. It’s now over 90% everywhere except America, where it’s still 65.79%. Regarding the properties of BA.2, the report reminds that according to the latest research, infection with BA.1 provides almost 95% protection against BA.2 and the symptoms are mild in case of reinfection.
Variant Xe more transferrable
On the other hand, there is no loss of effectiveness for the treatments compared to Omicron 1 or for diagnostic tests, both molecular and rapid. The situation of the new variants created by recombination, such as Xe, of which around 600 sequences were deposited as of March 29, is still being investigated. Initial estimates suggest it has a 10% portability advantage over BA.2, but “the discovery requires further confirmation”.
“High risk that new variants will emerge”
Regardless of Xe, the report warns that “the rate of evolution and the risk of emergence of new variants, including recombinant ones, are still very high.” For this reason, the decline in sequences deposited on Gisaid is worrying: while it was more than 284,000 in the first week of the year, it fell to just over 65,000 in the last weeks of February. “Although the decrease in sequences is consistent with the general trend in new cases observed worldwide, it may also reflect changes in epidemiological surveillance policies in some countries,” it said.