WHO alerts us of Omicron XE

Over 600 cases of Omicron XE have been reported in the UK. (Photo: Getty Images)

Is “XE” another Apple flagship launch, as the name implies? We wish.

Is it more sensationalist news devised to keep us all in line, as my mother would believe? The experts say no.

It’s Omicron’s latest subvariant—a recombinant, or combination, of BA.1 and BA.2—and it could be the most contagious one yet, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) statement last Saturday.

Last Saturday, Thailand recorded its first case of Omicron XE, now recovering from mild symptoms. It’s also been found in China, but the UK so far has reported over 600 cases since January. 

"According to initial estimates, Omicron XE spreads 43% faster than the original variant and 10% faster than the BA.2 subvariant,” said Chalermchai Boonyaleephan, Vice Chairman of Thailand’s Public Health Commission. That’s on top of BA.2 being 33% more likely to spread than BA.1, BA.1 being 2.7-3.3 times more contagious than Delta, and so on and so forth.

Welcome to the family, XE

In the growing family feud that is SARS-CoV-2 mutations, XE’s parents BA.1 and BA.2 are still Omicron subvariants despite being about as different from one another as earlier variants alpha, beta and gamma were. With XE, the WHO maintains it stays another subvariant until more distinct traits and symptoms caused by the mutation are found. 

And we can’t leave out XE’s siblings XD and XF, either.

According to the UK Health Security Agency, the XD and XF are both hybrids of Delta and BA.1. Forty-nine cases of XD were found mostly in France, Denmark, and Belgium as of mid-March, while only 38 cases of XF were discovered in the UK as of mid-February.

Following the WHO report, the Department of Health (DOH) assured Filipinos last Monday that it continues to coordinate with the WHO in monitoring the subvariant.

“We continue to implement our 4-door strategy to prevent initial entry of the variant to the country,” the DOH said.

This includes travel restrictions from high-alert countries, quarantine and testing protocols for arriving travelers, the Prevent, Detect, Isolation, Treat, Reintegration (PDITR) strategy, and lockdowns.

A friendly reminder that virus mutations are about as common as, say, Elon Musk buying things. If the SARS-CoV-2 virus pulls anything more surprising in the following weeks, it would probably be a collab with a completely different virus, which isn’t far from happening.