"US Trend" XBB.1.5 Variant Share Increasing... "Low Possibility of Major Outbreak"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Despite the relaxation of quarantine measures such as the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, the COVID-19 outbreak is showing signs of stabilization, while the proportion of the Omicron XBB.1.5 variant is gradually increasing domestically.

According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) on the 5th, the share of the Omicron sub-recombinant variant virus XBB.1.5 in the past week (March 26 to April 1) was 16.3%, up 4.7 percentage points from 11.6% the previous week. XBB.1.5 is a variant that spread in the United States between the end of last year and early this year and is known for its high immune evasion ability. It was first detected domestically on December 8 last year, and its weekly share has been increasing since the second week of March, from 7.6% to 10.3% to 11.6%.

The health authorities stated, "The share and number of patients with the XBB variant may increase somewhat," but "due to the substantial accumulated immunity from vaccines and natural infections so far, the likelihood of a large-scale outbreak is very low." They also explained, "Since the updated vaccines are effective against XBB as well, while vigilance is always necessary, there is no cause for concern, and this situation does not currently affect response measures or future policy plans." According to experiments by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the BN.1 and XBB variants produce virus quantities less than one-fifth compared to BA.5, and the culture positivity rate up to 8 days after onset is also low, indicating that the infectivity of the virus itself is actually lower. The dominant variant domestically remains BN.1, with a detection rate of 46.5%, down 7.2 percentage points from the previous week. The shares of BQ.1 and CJ.1 were recorded at 10.3% and 6.4%, respectively.

The average daily new confirmed cases over the past week were 10,104, a slight increase of 1.1% compared to the previous week. The average daily number of critically ill patients and deaths were 147 and 8, respectively. The weekly COVID-19 risk level has remained 'low' nationwide for seven consecutive weeks.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.