New Covid variant confirmed in Ireland - with an odd new symptom

Health officials in Ireland have warned that a new variant of Covid-19 is on the rise.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre have reported that a new strain, XEC, accounted for 7.1% of all officially recorded cases over the past five weeks.

"Emerging lineage XEC (KP.3 and KS.1.1 recombinant - recently named VUM by WHO andECDC) accounted for 7.1% of sequences in the last five week period," the surveillance report said.

The XEC variant was first recorded in Berlin, Germany in late June. It has since spread "quite rapidly" across Europe, North America and Asia, according to Covid data analyst Mike Honey

"Around 550 samples have now been reported, from 27 countries on 3 continents. Poland, Norway, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Portugal and China have now reported samples," he said.

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XEC is a hybrid of two previously discovered Omicron subvariants – KS.1.1 and KP.3.3 – meaning that current vaccines and bosster shots will be effective against it.

Symptoms of the XEC variant are also similar to other Covid strains, including fever, sore throat, cough, body aches and chills, and a loss of sense of smell and appetite, which you may not even notice until you try to eat.

Less common symptoms of Covid according to the HSE include runny or blocked nose, conjunctivitis, skin rashes, nausea or vomiting and diarrhoea.

If you have any of these symptoms, the HSE advice is to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 48 hours after your symptoms are mostly or fully gone.

If you test positive for Covid, the current advice is to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for five days from the date symptoms first appeared.