A new strain of the coronavirus has reportedly doubled the number of infections in a matter of days within the countries where it has been detected. Dubbed the 'Nightmare Variant', the strain has been found in more than 17 countries in Asia and Europe.
A handful of cases has now been found in the USA and it appears to more easily evade the protection granted to most people by vaccination or previous infection. However, experts are stressing that there are no signs of the new strain causing more serious illness, LeicestershireLive reports.
UC Berkeley infectious disease expert John Swartzberg told the San Francisco Chronicle: "We are seeing a slew of new variants that are using a similar approach to survive — they are finding ways to evade the way we get immunity from vaccines and previous infection with changes on the spike protein," he said. "XBB is no different from the others."
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XBB was first found in India in August and has since been found in Bangladesh, Japan, Singapore and at least 13 more countries - including Australia and Denmark. It has also been found in Hong Kong. Singapore Ministry of Health said XBB went from being responsible for 22% of cases to being responsible for 54% of cases in one week. 79% of people in Singapore are fully vaccinated.
Singapore's health ministry said there is no evidence that XBB causes more severe illness, although it appears resistant to treatments. Singapore saw the number of new cases of Covid double from 4,719 on 10 October to 11,732 on October 11, according to Johns Hopkins's Coronavirus Resource Center. The country is likely to see 15,000 daily cases on average by mid-November.
XBB is a mutation on Omicron BA.2. 23 cases of XBB have been detected in the USA. Natalie Thornburg, CDC lead respiratory virus immunology specialist said: "XBB is a chimera. I think there have been a couple of sequences identified in the United States. But it's way, way, way, way below that 1% threshold. I mean, it’s really like a handful of sequences."
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