The WHO announced that the XBB.1.5 variant of the coronavirus “is the most contagious yet discovered”.
It is the new variant that worries the health authorities. XBB.1.5, a subvariant of Omicron, is now considered by the WHO to be the “most contagious variant discovered to date.”
Already a source of contamination in 25 countries and present in France, it is particularly dominant in North America and the northeastern United States. “Outside China, one of the Omicron subvariants originally discovered in October 2022 is XBB.1.5, a recombination of two BA.2 sublineages,” the WHO explains.
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Covid-19: explosion of cases, screenings … after China, the spread of the new XBB.1.5 variant worries the United States
“It is on the rise in the United States and Europe and has now been identified in over 25 countries. The WHO is closely monitoring and assessing the risk of this subvariant and will report accordingly,” she said during a Jan. 4 news conference.
The XBB.1.5 variant, according to initial findings, has a certain level of immune escape: in practice, one of its mutations allows this strain to more easily contaminate our body cells.