A new Covid-19 variant known as "the Kraken" may become a dominant strain in the UK, according to officials.
Despite it's striking nickname, experts have highlighted that the XBB. 1.5 "sub lineage" of the Omicron variant is not any more dangerous than the Omicron variant, which is already less lethal than the original strain of Covid-19. However, the Kraken does have a "growth advantage" which could become dominant in the UK, experts added.
Currently, the dominant variant in the UK is another Omicron sub lineage - BQ.1. A new technical briefing from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) states that XBB.1.5 “remains at very low prevalence in the UK, so estimates of growth are highly uncertain”.
