The first case of the XE variant of Omicron has been found in New Zealand, but will this mean we have to readjust our traffic light settings, or is it business as usual in the fight against Omicron?
The Ministry of Health reported on Saturday the infected person travelled from overseas to New Zealand, arriving on April 19. They were tested on April 20 and whole genome sequencing subsequently confirmed the XE variant.
They are isolating at home.
The new variant, XE, was first detected in the UK on January 19, Australia recorded its first case a week ago and since then it has only been a matter of time before XE reached New Zealand.
XE is recombinant of two other strains, BA.1 - the original strain of Omicron - and BA.2.
On the limited data compiled so far, early estimates suggest the new strain is about 10 percent more transmissible than BA.2, but more data is needed to confirm this.
"XE belongs to the Omicron variant until significant differences in transmission and disease characteristics, including severity, may be found," a report on March 29 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
UK health authorities said in late March there was "insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about growth advantage or other properties of this variant."
"This particular recombinant, XE, has shown a variable growth rate and we cannot yet confirm whether it has a true growth advantage," said Susan Hopkins, chief medical advisor for United Kingdom's Health Security Agency.
The WHO said it will continue to closely monitor and assess the public health risk associated with recombinant variants and would provide further updates as evidence becomes available.
The Ministry of Health said on Saturday the arrival of the variant was not unexpected and our current health setting should be enough to counter any outbreak. .
"At this stage, the public health settings already in place to manage other Omicron variants are assessed to be appropriate for managing XE and no changes are required.
"There is no evidence to date that XE causes more severe disease than other Omicron lineages, noting that it takes weeks or months to identify the severity of each new variant."
Outgoing Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield warned earlier this month the new variant needed to be monitored.
"It's certainly something we need to keep a watching brief on and one of the things about XE is it's actually a combination of the two Omicron sub-variants the BA.1 and BA.2," Bloomfield told Melissa Chan-Green on AM in April.
"These viruses are constantly exchanging genetic material. So the XE variant seems to be maybe about 10 percent more infectious than this BA.2 variant that we have quite widely spread across the country at the moment."
