The so-called 'Kraken' coronavirus subvariant of omicron has been found in Finland, as expected, the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) said on Friday.
The XBB.1.5 strain was first detected last autumn in the United States, and has spread rapidly since then. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the sub-variant now accounts for about 72 percent of cases in the northeastern part of the country.
"It was to be expected that the virus variant in question would be found in Finland as well before long," Carita Savolainen-Kopra, a chief specialist in virology at the THL, said in a press release on Friday.
The XBB.1.5 subvariant is considered to be easily contagious, and like the omicron variants currently circulating in Finland, it effectively evades immune protection, she said.
"At the moment, however, it is not known to cause more serious illness than other omicron variants, and vaccine protection against serious illness has remained excellent regardless of variants," Savolainen-Kopra added.
According to the New York Times, XBB.1.5 is a highly mutated subvariant that can apparently better evade immune defences and invade cells. Some experts call it the most transmissible variant yet and anticipate that it will rapidly spread around the world.
