New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) has upgraded Omicron subvariant XBB.1.16 to a Covid-19 “variant of interest” (VOI) on account of its “sustained increase” and “growth advantage” reported from a number of nations.
XBB.1.16 is a descendent lineage of XBB, a recombinant of two BA.2 descendent lineages. XBB.1.16 was first reported on January 9, this 12 months and designated a variant below monitoring (VUM) on March 22.
So far, 3,648 sequences of the Omicron XBB.1.16 variant have been reported from 33 nations, together with India, on open analysis platform GISAID, the worldwide well being physique, mentioned.
“Following a sustained increase in the prevalence of XBB.1.16 and growth advantage reported from several countries, WHO classifies XBB.1.16 as a VOI,” mentioned Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for Covid-19 response at WHO on Friday.
Van Kerkhove famous that XBB.1.16 has proven “growth advantage and immune escape”. While “no changes in severity have been reported, it can cause full range of disease”, she mentioned, including for the necessity to “be vigilant”.
Driven by XBB.1.16, India on Saturday recorded 12,193 recent COVID-19 instances in a span of 24 hours, with the variety of energetic instances of the an infection going as much as 67,556, in accordance with the Union well being ministry.
The WHO famous that though there was a “slight increase” in XBB.1.16-related hospitalisation in India and Indonesia, the degrees are “much lower than seen in previous variant waves”.
Further, “available information does not suggest that XBB.1.16 has additional public health risk relative to XBB.1.5 and the other currently circulating Omicron descendent lineages,a the WHO said.
“However, XBB.1.16 could grow to be dominant in some nations and trigger an increase in case incidence on account of its development benefit and immune escape traits,” it added.
Meanwhile, some experts nicknamed XBB.1.16 as Arcturus, after the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. However, the WHO has not named it yet. WHO assigns Greek labels only for variants of concern (VOC), and not for VOIs.
“We aren’t utilizing nicknames for these sub variants, and I’d kindly encourage you to not. Please,” Van Kerkhove mentioned.
