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Covid-19: New XEC Strain 'Just Getting Started' Sparks Concern Amid Summer Wave Of US Cases

A newly discovered more contagious COVID-19 strain spreading rapidly through Europe is sparking concerns among health authorities around the globe as the United States is experiencing its largest wave of cases in over two years.

COVID-19

COVID-19

Photo Credit: Pixabay/PIRO4D

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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