Omicron’s ‘nightmare’ descendant, ‘the worst form of Coronavirus’ reported

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A novel Coronavirus subvariant, descendant of the highly infectious Omicron, has been reported in Singapore and Hong Kong, with cases more than doubling in a day.

Last week, a novel coronavirus subtype was discovered in Singapore, which has been reported in Hong Kong too.

As per media reports, cases rose from 4,700 on Monday to 11,700 on Tuesday in Singapore.

According to medical experts, the highly mutant descendant of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 is by far the most dangerous variant of COVID-19, that can beat human immunity.

The new sub-variant also manages to avoid the antibodies used in monoclonal therapies, potentially making a whole class of COVID treatments ineffective.

As per a Daily Beast report, Amesh Adalja, a public-health expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security stated, “It is likely the most immune-evasive and poses problems for current monoclonal antibody-based treatments and prevention strategy.”

He also revealed that the new Bivalent vaccine booster from Moderna and Pfizer is working effectively against the XBB variant.

Adalja went on to say, “Even with immune-evasive variants, vaccine protection against what matters most—severe disease—remains intact.”

An expert in vaccine development, Peter Hotez, emphasized that with Covid variants getting stronger every day, keeping current on your boosters is “the most impactful thing you can do in preparation for what might come”.

Scientists first found the XXB variant in August and till now XXB has at least seven more mutations which make the sub-variant more difficult for our immune systems to recognize, increasing the likelihood that it will dodge our immune cells and enter our cells to cause infection.

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