The newest Omicron variant, which has spread rapidly across the United States in the past few months, has now arrived in Australia - but there's no need to worry.
XBB.1.5 is an offshoot of the Omicron variant, which has been described as highly contagious but not as virulent as previous strains of the virus.
Infectious diseases expert Professor Robert Booy has dismissed concerns about XBB.1.5. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage “In that sense our immunity is pretty good there is an amount of immune evasion in this new variant so antibodies don’t work quite as well but the other part of our immune system called the T cells do work well in order to keep us out of hospital or even from dying.”
The first cases of XBB.1.5 were detected in New York state in late October but it now accounts for around 40 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in the US.Symptoms from the new variant do not appear to be any different to the traditional COVID-19 illness. A lack of genomic testing or case surveillance has led Australia and several other nations to increase controls on travellers from China.
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