Recent data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) suggests that the XE variant of Omicron may be more transmissible than the BA.2 strain currently driving COVID-19 infections in the UK. A total ...

Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. A new strain of Omicron, called XE, is spreading in the U.K., and a few cases have been identified elsewhere in the world.

The XE variant is a recombinant, meaning it has parts of two different variants rearranged into a new virus, which in this case are BA.1, the original strain of omicron, and BA.2, known as "stealth ...

As the Covid-19 pandemic has progressed, we’ve repeatedly seen the arrival of new viral variants. Variants of concern, such as Delta and Omicron, are versions of SARS-CoV-2 (the original variant that ...