XE variant: What do we know about the new COVID hybrid strain of Omicron found in the UK and Japan?

A new COVID-19 variant made up of two strains of Omicron is thought to be even more infectious than the one currently driving cases up around the world.

Health officials are tracking the strain, called XE, which was first detected in the UK but is now being reported in cases elsewhere.

It’s just the latest in a long line of variants that scientists are now keeping an eye on, as the world continues to battle coronavirus outbreaks.

According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), XE is a combination of BA.1 and BA.1.

BA.1 is the original Omicron variant, which sparked new waves of COVID-19 infections around the world and led to reinforced public health restrictions in many countries.

BA.2 was first detected in November, and it has now emerged as the dominant coronavirus strain in more than 60 countries.

It is more infectious than BA.1, but doesn’t seem to cause more serious disease.

“XE is a BA.1/BA.2 recombinant, with the majority of the genome including the S gene belonging to BA.2,” the UKHSA reported in a technical briefing from April 8.

A recombinant occurs when people get infected with two or more variants of the virus.

According to the UKHSA it's not unusual and several recombinant variants have been identified over the course of the pandemic.

Dr. Simon Clarke, an Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology at the University of Reading, told the AP news agency on April 8 that it was too soon to make judgements about XE.

"There's a lot to be learnt about this recombinant virus,” he said.

“This is where two viruses have got together and combined their genetic material and you end up with a mosaic. It seems at the moment that it is not as fit and as successful as BA.2, although I think it's still fairly early days”.

“In terms