Here's an animated map showing the spread of the NB.1.8.1 variant, and it’s child variants PQ.1 and PQ.2. The first sample was reported in England in January, but judging from it’s early spread, the origin was likely an undersampled region in Asia.
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It was soon reported across Asia and Australia. Growth accelerated from late March and it is now showing up almost everywhere that is still sharing sequencing data.
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This thread discusses the global variant picture, including analysis on the growth of the XDV.* clan (led by NB.1.8.1).
Here's the latest variant picture for Europe (excluding the UK), to early May.
The LP.8.1.* variant continued to dominate, growing steadily to around 52% frequency.
#COVID19 #EUR #LP_8_1 #XFG #XDV #NB_1_8_1 #XFJ
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The presumed next challengers are still at low frequencies but growing – XFG.* to around 10%, and XDV.* (led by NB.1.8.1) to around 6%, and also XFJ.* grew to 5%.
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In France, XFJ.* grew to sharply from late-April to reach 19%. Earlier, it grew in Germany to 9%.
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Here's the latest variant picture for the United States, to early May.
The LP.8.1.* variant has peaked and fell back to 52%.
The presumed next challengers are growing – XDV.* (led by NB.1.8.1) to 9% and XFG.* to 8%.
#COVID19 #USA #LP_8_1 #XFG #XDV #NB_1_8_1
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For the US, the XFG.* variant shows a strong but slightly slowing growth advantage of 5.2% per day (36% per week) over LP.8.1.*, which now predicts a crossover in early June.
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For the US, the XDV.* variant (led by NB.1.8.1) shows a healthy growth advantage of 4.8% per day (34% per week) over LP.8.1.*, with a possible crossover in June.
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Here's the latest variant picture with a global scope, to early May.
The dominant LP.8.1.* variant has fallen to around 34%.
XDV.* (led by NB.1.8.1) is challenging, rising steadily to 18%.
#COVID19 #Global #LP_8_1 #XDV #NB_1_8_1
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Globally, the XDV.* variant clan (led by NB.1.8.1) is showing a strong and accelerating growth advantage of 5.7% per day (40% per week) over the dominant LP.8.1.* variants. That now predicts a crossover in mid- May (the data routinely lags).
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Strong growth advantages like that (if sustained) could point to higher waves than those seen for LP.8.1.* (which were typically very low).
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Hong Kong is the first country to experience a wave driven by the new NB.1.8.1 variant.
From the Hong Kong surveillance report, wastewater is the most consistent indicator. That indicator is still trending upwards, to the highest level since mid-2023.
#COVID19 #HongKong
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Analysis of the impact of the new NB.1.8.1 variant in Hong Kong might be informative for those awaiting that variant in other countries.
Here’s the current variant picture for Hong Kong, showing the rapid “clean sweep” by the XDV.* variants, led by NB.1.8.1. In the JN.1 era (since late 2023) it has been very rare to see this, anywhere.
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