Washington, US

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that it is now monitoring a new COVID-19 variant of concern in the United States called XBB, which is now thought to account for 3.1 per cent of all new infections in the country. 

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As reported by CBC News, the Northeast has seen the most growth in the strain's prevalence thus far.

According to the CDC's "Nowcast" for this week, more than 5 per cent of infections in the areas spanning New Jersey through Maine are connected to XBB. 

A significant portion of illnesses in various South Asian nations are caused by XBB, which has also become more prevalent among arriving foreign travellers and among reported virus sequences from around the world.

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The CDC provided early estimates earlier this month that suggested XBB may be potentially doubling in percentage every 12 days. That might move more quickly than the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 varieties that are now prevailing in the nation. 

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Top COVID officials and specialists for the Biden administration, however, assert that they do not believe XBB will present a fresh threat on the same magnitude as when the Omicron variant initially surfaced a year ago.

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A number of new lineages, including XBB, have replaced the Omicron variant siblings BA.4 and BA.5, which were responsible for a spike in cases throughout the summer. The CDC reports that as of this week, BA.4 has all but vanished and BA.5 has decreased to less than 1 in 5 new infections countrywide.

(with inputs from agencies)