Are you worried about the new XEC COVID strain? New variant has now reached the UK

Adults over the age of 65 are among those eligible for the flu and Covid vaccines
-Credit: (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)


A new Covid variant has been making its way across Europe and has now reached UK shores.

initially detected in Germay, signs of XEC are consistent with typical Covid indicators: fever, muscle pain, coughing, and tiredness, but health specialists project this variant could become the leading strain in the UK within months.

Covid rates in the North East are rising as the winter approaches - and health bosses are pushing for people to get their Covid-19 and flu jabs to protect against a spike in illness.

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The latest figures released by the UK Health Security Agency have shown that the North East had the highest rate of Covid-19 hospital admissions in the country in late September, the last week for which data is available. In the week ending September 22, the North East had 5.8 hospital admissions for the coronavirus, more than double the national average of 2.56.

In a September statement about X variants, Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla noted: "At this juncture, the XEC variant appears to be the most likely one to get legs next." Topol also observed that it is "definitely taking charge" as the forthcoming dominant variant, which may impact public health considerably.

So far, health officials haven't sounded any major alerts, yet signs of a "transmission advantage" exist for XEC when compared to previous strains, say Prof Francois Balloux from the Genetics Institute at UCL, reported in the Express. Speaking to the BBC, Prof Balloux said there's potential for XEC to emerge as the primary subvariant of Covid during the winter of 2024/25, although he anticipates the existing vaccination regime should continue to protect the community.

Despite routine testing being much reduced since the pandemic's peak, the Reach Data Unit has pinpointed infection clusters across the nation via data analysis. Carlisle in Cumbria, seems to be the current hotspot, showing a rate of 10.88 infections per 100,000 residents, as per their findings