XBB.1.16 is a descendant of the recombinant XBB, which is a combination of two BA.2 sublineages. On social media, the variant has been dubbed Arcturus, after the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is currently the dominant variant in India, where it is causing a wave of mostly mild illness. But it has been seen in 32 other countries, including the United States.
This branch is very closely related to XBB.1.5. It has two gene changes that are different, including one to its spike protein, Francois Balloux, director of the UCL Institute of Genetics, at University College London, said in a news release. Balloux said he expects it to do well in countries that did not have a significant wave of cases caused by the XBB.1.5 sublineage, such as China and India. He says he doesn’t expect it to have much of an impact on the number of cases in the UK.
The WHO says that while this variant appears to be spreading faster than previous variants and evading immunity, even in people who have recently had the XBB.1.5 strain, it does not appear to be causing more severe disease. Therefore, the WHO says that the risk of this variant is low.
Last week in the United States, XBB.1.16 accounted for about 10% of COVID-19 cases nationwide, up from 6% the week before. The XBB.1.5 variant continues to be the dominant cause of new infections in the United States, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The WHO recommends that countries share information about this variant, as well as conduct tests to see how well immunity in their populations will defend against it. It also asks countries to monitor certain indicators of disease severity as this sublineage spreads.
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