Politico: Europeans should prepare for bad news because of COVID-19 ‘kraken’ variant
Europeans should prepare for bad news because of the threat of a sub-variant of the omicron kraken strain spreading to the continent, Politico columnist Carlo Martushelli said.
“The bad news is that XBB.1.5 is spreading rapidly, most likely because it has some big advantages over the currently dominant Omicron strain,” the journalist wrote.
The writer referred to an article by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control which stated that the kraken sub-variant had first been detected on 22 October 2022 in the US. The agency noted that XBB.1.5 had become “the most transmissible sub-variant”.
“Data from the US shows that XBB.1.5 is spreading aggressively, with the number of cases doubling every nine days,” Martuchelli added.
On Wednesday, WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove said the health organisation was concerned about how quickly the “kraken” was displacing other variants of the coronavirus.
So far, XBB.1.5 has been identified in 28 countries. In the US, it has already become the most dominant strain.
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