XEC, this new variant which is spreading in Europe

Four years after its global spread, Covid-19 continues to mutate. In August, Santé publique France published a report indicating that a new variant was under study. It was KP3.1.1, a derivative of the KP3 variant, itself a variant of JN.1… In short, Covid keeps diversifyingThis September, a new variant seems to be raging across the world and is gradually moving into Europe.

It is a sublineage of the Omicron variant: XEC. The latter was first reported in Europe last June, in Berlin, Germany, after traveling through the United States. According to the magazine Top Healththe variant has now conquered several countries in Europe, North America and Asia. In Slovenia, more than 10% of Covid cases were part of the XEC strain in August.

What symptoms does XEC give?

Across the European continent, 500 samples taken from 27 countries have shown strong growth of the variant. In the running: Luxembourg, Poland, Ukraine, Norway, Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands. While the original form of the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, our colleagues note that data collected by analysts would suggest that the XEC is growing steadily every day.

In terms of symptoms, it seems that the XEC variant would give the same as its predecessorsnamely: fever, sore throat, cough, loss of smell, loss of appetite and body aches. Scientists, although they are still studying XEC to learn more, still recommend getting vaccinated against Covid-19 and make your reminders for better protection against disease.