Is there a new variant in our country?
XBB.1.5 is the newest variant of COVID-19 that is now rapidly spreading around the US. Because it has more mutations, this variant can infect more people much more easily than the ones before it did. Even the people who got vaccinated are at a higher risk of becoming infected.
The World Health Organization stated that this new variant of the old omicron is, at this moment, the most contagious one in our country. At the start of December 2022, 2% of the cases were caused by XBB.1.5, and then, during the first week of January 2023, it increased to 27%, according to statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
