The side effects of newly discovered COVID strain XEC might not be more severe, but appears to be more contagious, epidemiologist Joëlla W. Adams said

The XEC variant is a hybrid of the earlier omicron subvariants KS.1.1 and KP.3.3, which is currently dominant in Europe. But XEC’s mutations could help it spread more easily this autumn, experts have told multiple news outlets.

XEC’s prevalence is lower in the US and Canada and reached a high of 5.96% in European cases on 19 August. Slovenia had high rates of infection with the variant in August with over 10 per cent of samples from the country containing XEC.