Germany’s health minister expressed concern about the new subvariant of the Omicron XBB.1.5 coronavirus, which is associated with an increase in the number of hospitalizations with COVID-19 in the northeastern United States, Reuters reports.

Although much of the world’s attention is focused on the dramatic situation in China regarding COVID-19, infectious disease experts are increasingly concerned about the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of the coronavirus, which has become responsible for more than 40% of cases. COVID-19 in the US last week.

“Hopefully we can make it through the winter before this variant starts spreading among us,” Berlin Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wrote on Twitter late Wednesday, adding that German authorities were monitoring the extent of the XBB.1.5 subvariant in Germany.

Lauterbach’s comments came less than two weeks after German virologist Christian Drosten, head of the virology department at the prestigious Charité University Hospital in Berlin, said he believed the COVID-19 pandemic was over and that Germany was experiencing its first endemic wave of coronavirus infection. .

Drosten, however, noted that another mutation of the coronavirus could be the only thing that changes the situation, but he does not expect that “at this point.”

What we currently know about the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of the coronavirus

However, according to the World Health Organization, this subvariant of Omicron, a variant first detected in South Africa and Botswana in November 2021 that has become dominant in the United States, does not cause more severe forms of COVID-19.

However, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said public health officials were concerned about the speed with which Omicron XBB.1.5 was spreading in the northeastern United States, where it was responsible for 75% of all infections.

In the rest of the US, this percentage exceeds 40%.

The number of Omicron XBB.1.5 infections is doubling in the U.S. every two weeks, with Van Kerkhove saying at a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday that it is “the most infectious subvariant identified so far,” CNBC reported.

“The reason for this is the mutations of this Omicron subvariant, which allow the virus to stick better to the cell and reproduce easily,” she added.

She also said that the XBB.1.5 subvariant has so far been found in 29 countries, but it could be even more common as tracking the different variants and subvariants has become increasingly difficult after countries around the world dramatically reduced the number of genetic sequencing infections. .

The WHO says it does not yet have data on the severity of COVID-19 caused by the XBB.1.5 subvariant, but there is currently no indication that it is more severe than previous forms of Omicron.

“We expect new waves of infections around the world, but this should not mean new waves of deaths, as our countermeasures continue to work,” Van Kerchow emphasized.