Infectious disease specialist discusses ‘Kraken,’ the new COVID-19 subvariant

Dalhousie University’s Dr. Lisa Barrett said the Omicron offshoot appears to be ‘very, very transmittable’

CITYnews halifax \ Meghan Groff

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It’s being called Kraken.

The XBB 1.5 subvariant has been quickly spreading in other countries, including the United States where it’s thought to now make up more than 40 per cent of COVID-19 cases.

The Omicron offshoot has also been detected here in Canada with the Public Health Agency of Canada saying on Wednesday it is aware of 21 cases in our country.

“It’s becoming very dominant in the United States where they’re still doing a fair amount of testing, and it does seem to be very, very transmittable,” explained Dalhousie University’s Dr. Lisa Barrett.

“That means if you’re in contact with the virus, your chances of getting some form of infection are probably quite high. Higher than even with the original Omicron variants, which were the most transmittable we had seen.”

However, the infectious disease specialist said there’s still a lot to discover about XBB 1.5.

“Is this one more or less likely to be associated with long term COVID symptoms? We don’t know that yet,” she told CityNews Halifax.

“We don’t think it’s a particularly nastier virus that’s putting healthy people in hospital, but how it impacts vulnerable people, either those who have been infected before or had vaccines, is not quite clear … we’re still waiting on real-world data from the United States.”

It is thought our immune systems have a harder time recognizing Kraken.

“What that means is prior infection with other COVID viruses or the vaccine have the potential to be slightly less effective,” Barrett explained. “But so far, it does appear that prior infection and/or vaccine protection is still somewhat useful, but not perfect.”

She said the new subvariant is just a reminder that this virus continues to mutate more quickly than other seasonal viruses we deal with.

“This virus is still sprinting forward in how it’s changing, and we’ve decided we want to walk beside it. That’s not always the best idea.”

Barrett would like to see more PCR testing, which she said would give us a clearer idea of what to anticipate so we can be better prepared for future mutations.