COVID-19: Fresh Concerns As New ‘Kraken Variant’ Emerges

Category: Health Matters

The emergence of a new COVID-19 variant known as XBB.1.5 has raised fresh concerns over what may become a potentially deadly new wave of the pandemic.

Nicknamed the “Kraken variant”, because of its ability to spread rapidly, the new variant is reputed to be the most transmissible sub-variant detected so far, even as the World Health Organization, WHO announced an increase in cases of an Omicron sub-variant across numerous countries.

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According to the WHO, the XBB.1.5 variant has already been identified in at least 30 countries including China and South Africa and is now dominant in the United States of America.

But in a statement, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, assured that there was no need to panic over the ‘Kraken’ Covid-19 variant.

The Agency said it was monitoring the situation and would announce findings as they developed. 

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