XEC, which was first identified in Germany, may eventually overtake the current dominant subvariant, KP.3.1.1, which is currently most common in the United States, accounting for about 42 percent of cases nationally according to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on Saturday, Aug. 31.
XEC make take weeks or even months before it significantly impacts cases in the US, but it “is just getting started now around the world and here,” Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California told the Los Angeles Times.
COVID cases are on the rise in the US, with new CDC data based on wastewater surveillance showing high levels of transmission in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and very high levels in Maine and New Hampshire.
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