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Dubbed “Kraken,” experts predict Omicron’s new XBB.1.5 strain will cause the next big wave of Covid, thanks to its immune escape capability and extremely high transmissibility.

World Health Organization officials have voiced the possibility that the troubling new variant also binds strongly to the cells it infects, allowing the virus to easily multiply in the patient’s body, which could lead to more serious disease conditions. But so far there is no evidence for this.

The mutant Kraken, or XBB.5.1, is a “recombinant” – or blend – of two subfamilies of Omicrons, BA.2, known as “stealth Omicrons” because it was difficult for labs to distinguish them from “Delta”. .

The United States is seeing by far the largest growth in the new format, along with 25 European countries including Denmark, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Ireland.

The Kraken mutant has all the traits and mutations of its predecessor, the XBB strain, but with one more change in the spike protein, as the virus attaches to and infects human cells.

The extreme transmissibility of the new Kraken variant is likely due to its high level of immune escape, according to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC).