Illustrative image (Photo: Xinhua) Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand has seen its firstconfirmed case of the XAY.2 variant of COVID-19 but people close to the patientwere not infected, the Thai Health Ministry’s Department ofMedical Sciences said on January 6.
Director General of the department Dr. Supakit Sirilak said thedepartment had already shared information about the case with the GlobalInitiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (Gisaid).
XAY.2 is a hybrid of the AY.45 Delta variant andthe BA.4/5 Omicron variant. So far there have been 344 cases of the hybridreported worldwide, he said.
The World Health Organisation has said it does not haveenough data yet on the severity of XBB.1.5, or a clinical picture on itsimpact. It said it saw no indication that its severity had changed but that increasedtransmissibility is always a concern.
Supakit allayed concerns about incoming Chinese arrivals, sayingthat 97% of the new COVID-19 cases in China were of the older BA.5.2 and BF.7Omicron variants, which do not spread any faster than COVID variants found inThailand.
Meanwhile, virologist Yong Poovorawan said new COVID-19strains from visitors arriving from western countries could pose a higherhealth threat than older strains from tourists arriving from China./.
