A new and highly contagious variant of Covid-19 has made its way to Australian shores for the first time.
According to health authorities in New South Wales, an international traveler recently returned to Australia and tested positive for the XE recombinant strain.
NSW Health revealed in its weekly Covid update that this case emerged in the last week of analyzed data, marking the nation’s introduction to this variant.
The XE strain combines characteristics of the Omicron subtypes BA.1 and BA.2, and it is reportedly 10% more transmissible than its predecessor, BA.2.
New South Wales has identified Australia’s first instance of the XE Covid variant, a hybrid of the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 strains.
The new highly transmissible XE strain of Covid-19 was found in a recently returned traveller
‘One recombinant XE (BA.1/BA.2) has been identified in a specimen collected in the week ending 9 April 2022,’ NSW Health said.
‘This is the first XE sequence to be identified in NSW and was identified in a recently returned traveller.’
Experts have warned the relaxation of restrictions and re-opened borders mean more cases are inevitable, with the arrival of other deadlier variants also highly likely.
XE is understood to have characteristics of both previous strains and was first detected in January this year.
In Britain 1,125 XE cases have been reported and it has also been detected in Japan, India, Canada, Israel and Thailand.
XE is included in the World Health Organisation’s list of ‘currently circulating variants of concern’ under the Omicron label.
Delta is also still a current variant of concern.
So far experts believe existing vaccinations are effective against XE producing severe illness in most people because they work against BA.1 and BA.2.
But vaccines have proved less effective against symptomatic Omicron infection, including mild infections.
There is also no early evidence it is any more severe than previous versions of Omicron.
The British government’s UK Health Security Agency is also monitoring a further two notable variants.
They have been dubbed XF and XD, which are both recombinants of Delta and Omicron BA.1.
Experts have warned our open borders and relaxations on Covid restrictions mean we will see more cases of XE and also other potentially deadlier strains
There were 124,554 people diagnosed with COVID-19 in NSW in the most recent dataset, a decrease of 14 per cent on the previous week, the NSW Health Covid weekly report said.
It also confirmed BA.2 ‘continues to be the dominant strain circulating’ in NSW.
BA.2 has been reported in 60 countries.
There were 75 deaths in NSW in the reporting period, 11 of them people aged under 65.