New XEC Covid variant starting to spread in Europe – what we know about signs and symptoms

Scientists have warned that a "more contagious" variant of the Covid virus, dubbed XEC, is starting to spread more rapidly across Europe and could soon become the dominant strain.

Researchers predicted in Aug that this variant could take a few weeks to a couple of months to take off and spread more rapidly.

XEC, a sublineage of the omicron variant, was first reported in Berlin, Germany, in Jun and is now spreading "quite rapidly" across Europe, North America and Asia, according to Covid data analyst Mike Honey.