XEC COVID-19 Variant Emerges: Here’s What We Know

A new COVID-19 variant called XEC has begun to spread in multiple regions worldwide and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that no specific symptoms are associated with the variant.
CDC spokeswoman Rosa Norman told The Epoch Times on Monday that the CDC is monitoring “the emergence of variants in the population,” including XEC, and that “specific cases cannot be associated with specific variants.”
Recombinants can occur when an individual is infected with two different COVID-19 strains.
Meanwhile, Gavi said that it is only “the latest in a long list of past and current COVID variants being monitored” as the virus changes. “Recombinant variants themselves are nothing new, as COVID cases in 2023 were dominated by the XBB recombinant variant,” it added.
“XEC has very similar genetic material to both its parent variants as well other circulating variants, which are mostly derived from JN.1,” GAVI continued.
Several similar variants are being tracked, GAVI noted, adding that the recently discovered MV.1 variant has a similar spike protein mutation as XEC. The spike protein, which is on the surface of a virus such as the one that causes COVID-19, allows a virus to bind to healthy human cells and enables it to gain entry and replicate.
“At this time, we anticipate that COVID-19 treatments and vaccines will continue to work against all circulating variants,” Norman said. “CDC will continue to monitor the effectiveness of treatment and vaccines against circulating variants. There are other actions you can take to help protect yourself and others from health risks caused by COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses.”