Health Min.: XE Forms No Threats for Public Health

On Sunday, the Ministry of Health issued a new statement regarding the newly emerged COVID-19's Omicron sub-variant, XE.

The ministry reflected that the new sub-variant is a combination of Omicron's BA.1 and BA.2, and it is more transmissible by only 10%.

In addition, it asserted that the emergence of the sub-variants is widely common, and they don't cause any concerns over the public health or the situation of the pandemic.

Experts identified more symptoms of the newly discovered Coronavirus variant XE, the Mirror reported on Friday.

The symptoms of the new variant are believed to be more like cold, sneezing, and runny noses, alongside the original symptoms of the virus such as the loss of smell and taste, and breathing difficulties.

The new Coronavirus variant was identified in the United Kingdom (UK) and experts gave it the name XE.

The newly recognized variant is a combination of the original BA.1, Omicron, and its subvariant BA.2. Experts said that this kind of engagement between a variant and its subvariant is called “recombinant.”

Furthermore, they added that this variant didn’t form any threat until now, according to Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor Dr. John Brownstein.

Brownstein said: “Right now, there’s really no public health concern,” adding: “Recombinant variants happen over and over. In fact, the reason that this is the XE variant recombinant is that we’ve had XA, XB, XC, XD already, and none of those have turned out to be any real concern.”