New Covid super variant XBB15 spreading faster

Nicknamed 'The Kraken', or mythical sea monster, XBB15 is seen as the worst variant in the world

Hyderabad: Just when people started to come to terms with the inherent risks associated with the BF7 variant of SARS-CoV-2, which is driving the Covid-19 wave in China, a super-variant XBB15 has now surfaced with a potential to become a globally dominant variant in the coming months, leading to possibly another round of Covid infections among people.

At present, the XBB15 variant of SARS-CoV-2 is behind a wave of Covid infections in multiple cities in United States and already two cases of this mutation, one each on Gujarat and Maharashtra, have been reported in India.

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Due to XBB15’s huge potential to infect persons who already have gained immunity through vaccines and natural infection, geneticists have unofficially started calling it as ‘Kraken’, the mythical sea monster of Norway. The XBB15 is being described as most immunity-evasive escape variant to date and is apparently spreading much faster than earlier variants, causing an increase in hospitalisations in multiple cities in US.

Expert geneticists who have been tracking Omicron mutations said that compared to BF 7 of China, right now the XBB15 is the worst variant in the world.

“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.

The consortium of genome sequencing laboratories in India (INSACOG) have already urged people to follow Covid appropriate behaviour and said, “the community need not panic and adherence to corona appropriate behaviours is recommended in the light of ongoing festivities.”

The XBB variant, which is a recombinant (fusion) of two different BA2 variants, was first reported in India. Later, it appears that the XBB variant in New York has further evolved into XBB15 Covid mutation. Of all the variants in the current mix, XBB.1.5 has the most growth advantage, geneticists worldwide believe.