U.S. health regulators estimated Friday that BQ.1.1, closely related to BQ.1, accounts for 16.6% of the country's coronavirus variants, nearly double the increase from last week, while Europe expects them to become the dominant strain of variants within a month.
European Centre for Disease Control and Control says these variant strains may drive the increase in cases in Europe in the coming weeks to months.
These two variants are descendants of the BA.5 subvariant of Omickron , the latter being the dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States. Regulators in Europe and the United States have recently approved enhanced vaccines for it.
European officials said there is currently no evidence that BQ.1 is associated with an increase in severity compared to the Omickron variants BA.4 and BA.5 in circulation, but they cited laboratory studies in Asia, warning that it may break through some immune protection.
Virologist and vaccine researcher Gregory, a virologist at Mayo Clinic Poland said: "These variants (BQ.1 and BQ.1.1) are likely to cause a very bad surge in the U.S. cases this winter, as it has started to occur in Europe and the UK.
WHO (WHO ) said this week that BQ.1.1 is in circulation in at least 29 countries.
WHO Wednesday Say that a new Omickron Asia variant, known as XBB, is the main variant of Singapore , has been found in 26 countries, but there is no specific explanation of which countries it is.
As of now, Omickron has more than 300 subvariants, and I think the concern is now XBB, which is a recombinant virus, and we have seen some recombinant viruses before. The Economic Times quoted the World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya on Friday Swaminathan's words reported. The
recombinant virus has strong immune avoidance capabilities, which means it can overcome current vaccine antibodies. "So, due to the existence of XBB, we may see some countries infected with another wave of viruses soon," she said.
