The World Health Orgnisation has confirmed detection of at least 600 cases of Covid-19 driven by the newly found XE variant of coronavirus, a recombinant variant of both Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 sub-variants so far. The variant, which was first detected in the UK, is apparently spreading to more locations at present. An epidemiological update published by the WHO, estimates show XE is 10 percent more transmissible than BA.2, though the findings transmissibility and nature of infection require further confirmation. The new strain is one of the three hybrid or recombinant viruses in total that have been detected so far. These are XD, XE and XF, of which XD and XF are combinations of Delta and Omicron variants.