Contagious Kraken variant of Covid-19 identified in Ireland 

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said there is a risk the new variant may have an increasing effect on the number of cases of Covid across Europe. Picture: iStock 

A new sub-variant of Covid-19 which is more contagious and is surging across America has now been identified in Ireland, although in low numbers.

XBB.1.5, nicknamed Kraken, is estimated to be 113% more transmissible than older forms, European health authorities have said.

Up to Monday, fewer than five new cases were notified to the Irish system, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre said.

Since December 18, genome sequencing has been carried out on 96,276 Covid-19 cases or 6% of confirmed cases. Older Omicron subvariants continue to dominate according to the latest Irish figures.

Across Europe, there is a risk this new variant “may have an increasing effect” on the number of cases, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said.

They estimated however this will take time, saying “ but not within the coming month as the variant is currently only present at very low levels in the EU/EEA”.

They described XBB.1.5 as “a sub-lineage of XBB with an additional spike RBD mutation S486P".   

The ECDC however moved to reassure people concerned at the extremely rapid growth of this variant in America, where it has now reached 27.6% of sequenced cases.

“The rapid growth in the US does not necessarily mean that the variant will become dominant in the EU/EEA, since major differences in variant circulation between North America and Europe have been observed several times during the pandemic,” the ECDC said.

In Britain, health authorities are also monitoring XBB.1.5 and have said the symptoms are similar to those caused by Omicron.