As the pandemic enters its fourth year, a new COVID-19 subvariant that is spreading fast in the US has been detected in Australia, where high transmission rates has also led to the creation of the country’s own subvariants for the first time
As the pandemic enters its fourth year, a new COVID-19 subvariant that is spreading fast in the US and leading to increasing hospitalisations has been detected in Australia, where high transmission rates have also led to the country’s first homegrown strain, in NSW.
Turville said that while XBB.1.5 “is definitely one to watch”, there is no evidence it causes more severe disease than any of the other hundreds of Omicron subvaraints already circulating. The reason XBB.1.5 has raised alarm among experts around the world is because it contains an unusual mutation known as F486P.Professor Robert Booy, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Sydney, said this mutation meant XBB.1.5 was more transmissible than its predecessors and, he suspects, more easily able to evade our immunity.
In NSW, BR.2.1 has become the most dominant subvariant, and Turville said all the data suggests the virus mutated in the state, making the strain “one of our own”. there is early evidence pointing to a higher reinfection risk from XBB.1.5 compared with other circulating Omicron sublineages.But he said excess mortality estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics were starting to come down again, following surges of deaths in the latest coronavirus wave.
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