A recombinant variant of Covid initially detected in Finland last month appears to be spreading with reports from two more countries. A recombinant variant is created when two strains of Covid combine to form a new set of mutations.
The mutations can allow a virus to spread more easily or more quickly - evading vaccines and immunity or casing more serious disease. Experts say there is no evidence that XJ is more dangerous at this stage.
Omicron XE has been detected in the UK with hundreds of cases - combining two strains of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2. Now a new strain is being reported in Europe and Asia.
A number of cases of Omicron XJ - the newest variant - were detected in Finland at the end of March. Now a case has been identified in Italy, and validated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanit.
At the same time a case has been detected in Thailand. The country's Medical Sciences Department has found the XJ genetic code in a delivery driver diagnosed with Covid in Bangkok.
The man had been vaccinated. The department's director Supakit Kirilak said: "It is highly likely to be the XJ recombinant. He met many people due to the nature of his job. That made him vulnerable to infection."
Supakit said the variant detected is definitely not the XE strain - which was first detected in the United Kingdom in January. As of 22 March 2022, there were 763 XE cases in the UK.
On Friday Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he could not rule out future lockdowns if another strain is found to be more dangerous - causing more serious disease or spreading more rapidly.
