According to the scientist, a new vaccine began to be developed as an initial model, which will be used against the subvariants identified with the letter X, such as XBB and the one already mentioned, also known as Kraken, since it is unknown how long it takes to spread.

Guintsburg made these statements the day after the National Office for Consumer Protection (Rospotrebnadzor) reported the detection of the first case of infection by the said subvariant in the province of Penza.

The XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron (aka Kraken) was first identified in the United States, in the second half of last October, and was subsequently detected in other countries.

In the United States, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 28 percent of all current infections correspond to this strain.

Epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization noted earlier this month that XBB.1.5 “is the most transmissible subvariant of Omicron to date.”

Van Kerkhove expressed concern about spread capability of the variant and warned of possible waves of new infections around the world, but at the same time said that this spread must not be translated into more waves of deaths, because the countermeasures continue to work.

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