The World Health Organisation has said it is tracking recombinant Covid-19 variants including the XE Omicron hybrid that is slightly more transmissible than its Omicron parent.
“Recombinants will emerge,” said Babatunde Olowokure, the WHO’s western Pacific emergency director. “[It] occurs when at least two different viral strains infect the same cell and exchange genes between them. Recombination is common among coronaviruses and is expected.
“We continue to monitor those and how they are developing and spreading, particularly in terms of whether they are more transmissible or not.”
The WHO was also assessing disease severity, impact on vaccine performance and risk of reinfection, he said on Thursday (April 7).
The global health body said the recombinant variants it was tracking included the XD lineage – a combination of the Delta and Omicron variants – and the XE lineage, which is a hybrid of Omicron sublineages BA.1 and BA.2.
Early estimates suggest that XE is 10 per cent more transmissible than BA.2 – dubbed “stealth Omicron” – but that XD is no more transmissible than other circulating variants, according to the WHO’s weekly Covid-19 update, published on Tuesday.
XE, which has been detected in Britain, India and Thailand, has not been reported in the WHO’s western Pacific region, which covers Pacific island nations, Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea as well as parts of Southeast Asia – but not Thailand, which falls under the WHO’s Southeast Asia region.
The western Pacific regional director, Takeshi Kasai, said that countries should continue to strengthen their Covid-19 planning to respond to surges and mutations, and be ready for any future pandemics.
“It is unlikely the virus will disappear any time soon,” he said. “It would continue to mutate and surge. So it is not the virus but it is the system that can sustainably control Covid-19 repeated surges while avoiding significant disruptions to society.
“[Our member states] are managing surges without exceeding or reaching the red line – the point that the number of severe cases exceeds the capacity of healthcare.”
He said the best ways to end the public health emergency remained high vaccine coverage, increasing healthcare capacity and maintaining public health measures, introducing more specific measures in high-risk settings such as schools to allow them to resume operating.
The WHO’s regional director of programmes for disease control, Huong Tran, said that the region had a high vaccination rate for the most vulnerable groups, with 26 of its 37 member countries and regions having vaccinated their healthcare workers and 23 having vaccinated their elderly.
“Vaccine supply and distribution are no longer the major issues in our region,” she said. “Most countries and areas in our region, including low- and middle-income countries and Pacific island countries, are now in a relatively good position on vaccine accessibility and availability.”
This article was first published in Asia One . All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
