Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are firmly in the midst of cold and flu season and with that a new COVID-19 variant is making the headlines. According to the CDC Data Tracker, there has been an uptick in reported cases involving the XEC variant.

The CDC's Nowcast data tracker, which displays COVID-19 estimates and projections for two-week periods, reflected that the KP.3.1.1 variant accounted for 57.2% of positive infections, followed by XEC at 10.7% in the two weeks starting on Sept. 29 and ending on Oct. 12.

New COVID strain XEC is a recombinant strain of two variants in the Omicron family: KS.1.1 and KP.3.3. The hybrid strain was first reported in Berlin in late June but has spread across Europe, North America and Asia, with Germany, France, the Netherlands and Denmark leading the charge.

The XEC variant of Covid is quickly becoming the dominant strain of the winter, but the current vaccines may not be as effective against it

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned members of the public that the XEC strain of the disease is spreading in the UK with cases increasing at a high rate

Covid hospitalisations have surged across Britain at an “alarming” rate as a new variant of the virus emerged, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has warned. UKHSA figures showed the admission rate for patients testing positive for Covid XEC stood at 4.5 per 100,000 people in the week to October 6 – up from 3.7 a week earlier.