The new XEC variant is spreading so fast it looks set to become the UK’s dominant Covid strain this week, fuelling the current wave of the virus, experts predict. XEC is thought to be significantly more contagious than the other variants and quickly grew to account for 21 per cent of UK infections on 28 Saturday September , according to the Gisaid Covid database . As such, it is contributing to a double-whammy of colds and Covid infections and Australian data scientist, Mike Honey , predicts XEC will be responsible for more than 50 per cent of new UK Covid cases by Thursday, making it the country’s new dominant variant.
The growth of XEC will fuel the autumn wave, which has pushed cases up sharply in the past few weeks, with the cooler weather and children going back to school also playing a role. The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency indicates that infections rose by 8 per cent in the week to September 28. This is based on tests among hospital patients, which is a very rough measure but gives a indication of trends in the general population, scientists say.
Much of that that increase occurred in the first half of that week with cases rising much less in the second half. This suggests that infections may be starting to level off, although it is far too early to say for sure, scientists said. Either way, levels remain high and will be sustained by the growing prevalence of XEC infections, scientists say.
“As one wave begins to reduce another can be started b.