Photo: RNZ
The highly transmissable Covid-19 sub-variant, XEC has arrived in New Zealand, with one epidemiologist concerned people will die if there's an outbreak of the new strain.
This strain is a mix of two previous Omicron subvariants. A recombinant variant is created when a person is infected with two strains of a virus that then reproduce, resulting in a different strain.
ESR has detected a number of cases of the new strain in clinical samples.
Epidemiologist and Professor Michael Baker said a clear strategy is needed to reduce the impact of XEC.
It has been reported in about 30 other countries, including Australia.
Professor Paul Griffin from the University of Queensland told Checkpoint XEC seemed to be more infectious than other subvariants.
COVID-19 sub-variant XEC arrives in New Zealand
Although it did not seem to be more severe, Griffin said, it did seem to have "the concerning hallmarks of a subvariant."
"In many parts of the world it's predicted it'll be dominant, perhaps even by the middle of this month," he said.
Griffin added people needed to maintain a certain level of readiness and mitigating strategies.
"At the moment, I think one of our biggest challenges is actually complacency.
"The fact that we've got a new subvariant that's looking more infectious than taking over in many parts of the world, it should be a reminder that we need to keep up some of those basic strategies like vaccination, antivirals and simple measures to reduce getting infected and onward transmission."
The current Covid-19 vaccine is predicted to still be able to protect from the XEC subvariant too, he said.
"One of the challenges we face is a lot of people are saying that JN1 is not going to protect against XEC because it sounds different but in fact that's not the case and while its ability to protect will be reduced to a degree it'll still be very good.
"That'll be a really important part of our strategy to combat XEC and even the next subvariant that'll inevitably follow it."