The Thai Public Health Ministry announced on January 6 that the country has recorded its first case of the Covid-19 variant XAY.2.
Symptoms of this variant are similar to those of the Omicron variant. (Illustrative image: Reuters)
According to Mr. Supakit Sirilak, Director of the Thai Health Science Department, the case of the XAY.2 variant exhibits symptoms similar to those of the Omicron variant. Close contacts of this case are being monitored, but no additional infections have been detected. Thailand has shared information about this case with the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID).
The Director of the Health Science Department stated that Thailand has not yet recorded any cases of the highly transmissible XBB.1.5 variant, which is spreading rapidly in the United States. Mr. Supakit also alleviated concerns regarding the possibility that Chinese tourists visiting Thailand could complicate the epidemic situation. According to him, this is because most of the reported Covid-19 cases in China belong to the BA.5.2 and BF.7 variants, which do not spread faster than variants detected in Thailand, such as BN.1.3.
Thailand’s leading virologist, Dr. Yong Poovorawan, indicated that Covid-19 variants observed in Western countries could pose a higher health threat than the older strains currently dominant in China.
| XAY.2 is a variant that combines the AY.45 subvariant of Delta with the BA.4/5 subvariant of Omicron. To date, only 344 cases of this variant have been reported worldwide. |
