India
oi-Madhuri Adnal
New
Delhi,
Jan
11:
A
new
Covid
strain
dubbed
the
Kraken
or
or
XBB.1.5
variant
is
a
descendant
of
the
Omicron
XBB
sub-variant.
It
was
first
detected
in
the
United
States
in
2022,
this
variant
has
quickly
picked
up
pace
and
has
raised
concerns
in
many
countries
including
India.
According
to
World
Health
Organisation
(WHO),
it
is
a
recombinant
of
BA.2.10.1
and
BA.2.75
sublineages
and
the
most
transmissible
version
of
Covid.
The
variant
has
now
been
identified
in
at
least
29
other
countries.
So,
who
gave
the
nickname?
Ryan
Gregory,
a
biology
professor
at
the
University
of
Guelph
in
Ontario,
Canada,
gave
the
termed
it
as
‘Kraken’ to
XBB.1.5,
as
reported
by
Fortune.
According
to
Professor
Wendy
Barclay
from
Imperial
College
London,
Kraken
appears
to
have
the
ability
to
bind
to
cells
while
evading
the
body’s
immune
defences,
leading
to
greatly
increased
transmissibility.