It has been reported in about 30 other countries, including Australia.
Professor Paul Griffin from the University of Queensland told Checkpoint XEC seemed to be more infectious than other sub-variants.
Although it did not seem to be more severe, Griffin said, it did seem to have “the concerning hallmarks of a sub-variant.”
“In many parts of the world it’s predicted it’ll be dominant, perhaps even by the middle of this month,” he said.
Griffin added people needed to maintain a certain level of readiness and mitigating strategies.
“At the moment, I think one of our biggest challenges is actually complacency.
“The fact that we’ve got a new sub-variant that’s looking more infectious than taking over in many parts of the world, it should be a reminder that we need to keep up some of those basic strategies like vaccination, antivirals and simple measures to reduce getting infected and onward transmission.”
The current Covid-19 vaccine is predicted to still be able to protect from the XCC sub-variant too, he said.
“One of the challenges we face is a lot of people are saying that JN1 is not going to protect against XCC because it sounds different but in fact that’s not the case and while its ability to protect will be reduced to a degree it’ll still be very good.
“That’ll be a really important part of our strategy to combat XCC and even the next sub-variant that’ll inevitably follow it.”
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