New ‘Kraken’ variant and another Omicron offshoot CH.1.1 ‘most likely to takeover’ in UK, experts warn

THE “Kraken” Covid variant is likely to take over and become dominant in the UK – but is not yet a “variant of concern”, experts have said today.

XBB.1.5 has been increasing in the US in recent months as have cases of CH.1.1 the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

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Experts have said they are monitoring the variants and that they would become dominant in the UK[/caption]

At present in the UK, BQ.1 and its sublineages are the dominant strains.

A risk assessment conducted by UKHSA together with academic partners found that CH.1.1 and XBB.1.5 are currently the variants most likely to take over from BQ.1 as the next dominant variant in the UK.

This is unless further novel variants arise, experts said.

Neither have been designated as variants of concern by UKHSA, the report found.

The Kraken variant – an off-shoot of Omicron – was first detected in India in August and has since been found in 25 countries.

The ‘Kraken’ nickname was given to the variant by Twitter users – the strain does not have an official name with a Greek letter because it is a version of Omicron.

The name appears to have first been suggested on Twitter by evolutionary biologist Prof T. Ryan Gregory.

“This year, some of us decided that we needed nicknames for variants worth watching, given that the WHO wasn’t giving any new names under their system,” he wrote.

“We’ve been using mythological creature names for variants that are being discussed outside of technical discussions.”

Data also shows that CH.1.1 is an offshoot of BA.2.75, which was first detected in May 2022 in India.

Dr Meera Chand, Director of Clinical and Emerging Infections, UKHSA said: “Through our genomic surveillance we continue to see evolution of variants in the Omicron family.

“UKHSA is constantly monitoring the situation and working to understand the implications for public health.

“Vaccination remains our best defence against future COVID-19 waves, so it is still as important as ever that people come forward and take up all the doses for which they are eligible as soon as possible.”