Scientists have warned that a “more contagious” variant of Covid-19, dubbed XEC, is spreading more rapidly across Europe and could soon become the dominant strain. According to the BBC, the new variant was first identified in Germany in June, and since then, the XEC variant has emerged in the UK, US, Denmark and several other countries. Experts have said that the new variant, a sublineage of the omicron variant, has some new mutations that might help it spread this autumn, although vaccines should still help prevent severe cases. 

The XEC variant is a hybrid of the earlier omicron subvariants KS.1.1 and KP.3.3, which is currently dominant in Europe. So far, 500 samples from 27 countries, including Poland, Norway, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Portugal and China, have been found to contain XEC, The Independent reported. Experts point to strong growth of the variant in Denmark, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands.

Professor Francois Balloux, Director of the Genetics Institute at University College London, told BBC that although XEC has a “slight transmission advantage” over other recent Covid variants, vaccines should still offer good protection. But he also added that XEC may become the dominant subvariant over the winter. 

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Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, in California, Eric Topol said XEC is “just getting started”. “And that’s going to take many weeks, a couple months, before it really takes hold and starts to cause a wave,” he said. 

“XEC is definitely taking charge. That does appear to be the next variant. But it’s months off from getting into high levels,” said Mr Topol. 

Symptoms of XEC Covid

The symptoms of the XEC variant are similar to those of previous Covid variants, including fever, sore throat, cough, loss of sense of smell, loss of appetite, and body aches. 

But since it is still only a sub-family of the same omicron lineage, experts say keeping up to date with vaccines and booster shots would offer sufficient protection against severe illness and hospitalisation.

Separately, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also advised people to practise good hygiene and take steps for cleaner air.

Moreover, researchers have called for monitoring the XEC more closely to better understand its symptoms. 

Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, which has conducted extensive research on bat coronaviruses, has faced controversy and scrutiny from various countries, including the US, regarding allegations of a lab leak contributing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, scientists at the institute have developed a new nanovaccine that shows promise in providing universal protection against all major Covid-19 variants and potential future coronavirus mutations, South China Morning Post reported. 

According to the research team, current vaccines have played a crucial role in preventing the spread of Sars-CoV-2 and reducing mortality rates. However, they believe that existing vaccines lack universal protection against all variants of the virus. So, they developed a universal COVID-19 vaccine by combining coronavirus epitopes (specific parts of antigens that trigger an immune response) with the blood protein ferritin. This combination creates an intranasal nanoparticle vaccine that shows promise in protecting multiple variants of Sars-CoV-2, including Delta, Omicron, and WIV04.

The WIV04 strain refers to an early variant of Sars-CoV-2 that was initially detected in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the Covid-19 pandemic first emerged. 

”The ongoing and future pandemics caused by Sars-CoV-2 variants and mutations underscore the need for effective vaccines that provide broad-spectrum protection,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal ACS Nano in June.

”Our constructed nanovaccine targeting the conserved epitopes of the pre-existing neutralising antibodies can serve as a promising candidate for a universal Sars-CoV-2 vaccine,” the paper added. 

While the global risk level of COVID-19 has significantly decreased, researchers warn that the virus’s ongoing mutation will continue to generate new variants, some of which may possess increased transmissibility and potentially trigger future outbreaks or even another global pandemic. 

That’s why the team believes that nanovaccines offer an “excellent vaccine platform” and have long-lasting immune responses. 

The nanovaccine was first tested on mice, which demonstrated promising results. Mice receiving the nanovaccine, followed by two booster shots within 42 days, showed significantly higher levels of Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies compared to control groups. When vaccinated mice were exposed to various coronavirus variants, including Omicron and Delta, they exhibited enhanced resistance to virus-induced lung symptoms, showcasing the vaccine’s protective efficacy against different strains.

The nanoparticle vaccine “has the potential protective capability as a broad spectrum vaccine against various [coronaviruses]”, the team wrote.

File photo used for representational purpose only.

Children infected with the Omicron variant remain infectious for three days on average after testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to a study.

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and Stanford University in the U.S. noted that school policies that require students with COVID-19 to stay out of the classroom for five days are more than sufficient.

“We are basically saying five days is more than sufficient; public health and education leaders may consider shorter durations,” said study co-author Neeraj Sood, Director of the COVID-19 Initiative and a senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, found that the median time of infectivity was three days, with 18.4% and 3.9% of children still infectious on day five and day 10, respectively.

The researchers also found no association between how long children were infectious and whether they were vaccinated, suggesting return-to-school policies may not need discriminate by vaccine or booster status.

The study seeks to inform policymakers who grapple with how long children must isolate when they contract COVID-19. Such self-isolation policies, aimed at halting the spread of the virus, can negatively interrupt children’s education.

“We want to protect other children in the school who could potentially get infected, but at the same time, we don’t want to disrupt education for the child who is infected, given the amount of disruption that’s already happened,” said Mr. Sood.

“The duration of infectivity is an important parametre into figuring out what the optimal duration of self-isolation should be,” he added.

The researchers partnered with a virus testing company and examined nasal swabs from 76 children in Los Angeles County who were between the ages of seven and 18 and tested positive for COVID-19.

Survey participants provided samples during five home visits over a 10-day period and samples were examined in a lab to find evidence of cell death, a sign of infectivity. All participants were infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

“We wanted to capture how infectivity changed over the 10-day window,” said study lead author Nikhilesh Kumar, a Doctor of Medicine student at the USC Keck School of Medicine.

The findings are consistent with previous research on adults who contracted the Omicron variant, which showed no association between vaccination status and time of infectivity.

“That research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed adults with Omicron were infected for a slightly longer duration, with a median time of five days,” the authors noted.

The team called for further research so that policymakers can consider adjusting the time students must stay out of the classroom.