A leading GP has said the new Covid variant Omicron XE will "most likely" become the dominant strain in Northern Ireland.
Public health officials confirmed at the weekend that a small number of cases of the new strain of the Omicron variant have been detected here.
XE is a mutation of the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 strains and the result of two strains merging together and then going on to infect others.
Read more: 'Small number' of new Covid variant cases in Northern Ireland, public health officials confirm
According to the Public Health Agency, a total of 1,179 cases of XE have been confirmed in the UK so far and to date a small number of confirmed cases (fewer than five) have been detected in Northern Ireland.
Some of the symptoms that have been reported with the XE strain include a fever, sore throat, scratchy throat, cough and cold.
Dr Alan Stout, chair of the British Medical Association's GP committee in Northern Ireland, said there is no sign at the moment that we should be worried.
"The early signs are that it is going to be very transmissible so it will probably become the dominant strain again.
"Again the early signs from elsewhere are that it's not causing any more serious illness and that the vaccine is protecting (people). So even though it will most likely become dominant it hopefully won't cause any significant problems."
Dr Connor Bamford, from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen's University Belfast, said recombinant variants are not an unusual occurrence as several have been identified over the course of the pandemic to date.
Dr Bamford told Belfast Live : "Recombinants are to be expected given how well we are tracking the virus evolution; the sheer high number of infections currently happening worldwide and when we have a few different variants co-circulating like BA.1 and BA.2 but also Delta and Omicron earlier in the year.
"There's some early evidence that XE spreads very slightly better than standard BA.1 and BA.2, which is what is dominating NI now. However, it's likely not to massively impact events as essentially it's still Omicron," he added.
"What may happen is that the current wave will be larger than what it would have been. Although this is only based on if XE is indeed better than BA.2.
"If we want to reduce the negative consequences of virus evolution we can do two things: reduce numbers of infections in community, as well as maintaining high levels of immunity through vaccination especially in at risk groups."
What is XE?
XE is a mutation of the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 strains and is referred to as a "recombinant".
This happens when two variants meet while multiplying and decided to evolve by sharing genome or characteristics.
Once this occurs, a recombinant variant is born.
When was it first detected in the UK?
The variant was first detected in the United Kingdom in January.
What are the symptoms reported with the variant?
Symptoms of the XE Omicron variant include some of the most common Covid symptoms
They include:
- A high temperature or shivering (chills)
- A new, continuous cough
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling tired
- Aches in the body
- Headaches
- Sore throat
- Loss of appetite
- Diarrhoea
- Feeling sick or being sick
Most recent Covid figures in Northern Ireland
The Department of Health's Covid data was not updated over the Easter period but in an update this afternoon, 2,695 positive cases were reported between Thursday 14 April and Tuesday 19 April while 14 deaths were also reported in that period.
As of today, 3,775,878 vaccines have been administered in total.
This morning there were 367 Covid-positive patients in hospital, of whom five were in intensive care.
Read more: Symptoms reported by those being infected by new Covid strain
Read more: NI health department statement as new XE Covid variant detected in UK
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