The number of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 XBB.1.5. subvariant continues to grow in Canada, with a total of 42 documented cases as of Monday, the country’s public health agency said.
That’s more than the 21 cases that were confirmed last week.
XBB.1.5. it is a sublineage of the Omicron XBB subvariant and has been considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the “most transmissible” COVID-19 variant so far.
In a statement to Global News on Wednesday, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) It said the number of cases is expected to rise by the end of this week because “there is currently a delay in reporting late-December and early-January detections from provinces and territories due to the holiday period.”
Using the results of PCR tests and wastewater surveillance, genomic sequencing has been able to detect the specific subvariant, the agency said.
The subvariant, which has earned the nickname Kraken on social media, is spreading rapidly in Asia and is now thought to account for about 70 percent of cases in the northeastern US, according to the Centers for Disease Control. US Disease Control and Prevention
PHAC has not yet said if it considers XBB.1.5. a variant of concern.
“Staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines remains one of the most effective ways to protect against serious illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19,” PHAC said.
— with archives by Heidi Lee
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