XBB1.5 variant of coronavirus found in India

It is the sublineage of the Omicron subvariant causing a deluge of Covid-19 cases in China.

According to Yunlong Cao, biochemist at Peking University, XBB.1.5 is not more immune evasive than XBB but it does have a higher level of transmissibility.

XBB.1.5 was aptly first noted by JP Weiland a couple of weeks ago.

"XBB.1.5 appears faster and more sustained than any of the variants since Omicron's first wave[BA.1] last January," scientist JP Weiland said.

Updated Covid booster vaccines, targeting the original variant of the coronavirus as well as BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, would provide limited protection against the XBB subvariant and would not be "optimal", top US infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci had said in November.

"Anytime a new variant moves to a different geographic area, it does run the risk of sort of spawning a mini-outbreak in that area," Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore told Reuters.

However, Pekosz said XBB subvariant is unlikely to cause the kind of massive surges seen last winter from the original Omicron variant.