more than 600 subspecies of Omicron-Skamm coronavirus are circulated at the moment in the world, including XBB.1.5, the spread of which is expected to grow.
This was reported in Geneva by the expert of the World Health Organization (WHO) Maria Van Kerkhova.
Omicron is still the most contagious variant of coronavirus today. Now there are more than 600 subspecies of Omcrona, which we track, and the subspecies XBB.1.5 is one of them. That is, the virus continues to evolve, ”said Van Kerkhov.
“We expect an increase in the distribution of XBB.1.5,” the expert warned.
She emphasized that XBB.1.5 “has advantages in growth compared to other circulating subspecies.”
“We do not see changes in severity (the course of the disease during infection XBB.1.5 – ed.). However, data for evaluating severity for XBB.1.5 are limited,” Van Kerkhov explained, adding that there is information in the world About 9 thousand genomic sequences xbb.1.5.
The expert expressed regret in connection with a reduction in SARS-COV-2 sequencing studies, which leads to a decrease in the data that is received in the database necessary to evaluate the real situation.
As of February 3, the WHO received reports of 754 million 018 thousand 841 infected coronavirus from the beginning of the pandemic and 6 million 817 thousand 478 dead. Over the past day, 152 thousand 656 infection cases have been identified, 1 thousand 050 people died.