KARACHI: Health officials in Pakistan confirmed one of the three dominant strains of COVID-19 in China and Omicron’s subvariant XBB’s presence in Pakistan by way of genome sequencing, and Sindh Health department said the other day that at least six people were tested positive for the XBB and XBB.1 Omicron variants of coronavirus.
What are XBB and XBB.1 Omicron variants of coronavirus?
According to multiple reports and sources, scientists found that The BQ.1, BQ.1.1, XBB and XBB.1 omicron subvariants are the most immune evasive variants of Covid-19 to date.
Scientists have warned that the Omicron subvariants driving COVID cases among Americans appear to elude the immune system as well as medical treatments for the virus.
Officials said new variant of concern dubbed XBB.1.5 makes up 40.5% of new infections across the country.
The scientists, in a study published online Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Cell, found that these subvariants are “barely susceptible to neutralization” by the vaccines, including the new omicron boosters. The immune response of people who were vaccinated and had breakthrough infections with prior omicron variants also was weaker against the subvariants.
Studies suggest for people who received the omicron boosters, antibodies that block infection were 24 times lower against BQ.1, 41 times lower against BQ.1.1, 66 times lower against XBB and 85 times lower against XBB.1 compared to their performance against the ancestral strain that emerged in Wuhan, China, in 2019.
