Pointing out that he is responsible for one in 25 infections in the UK, data in Britain showed the presence of a new variant of the coronavirus, characterized by its high contagiousness

The British newspaper "Daily Mail" reported on Monday that experts called the new variant of the coronavirus "XBB.1.5".

The new variant has raised the alarm in the United States for its rapid spread and caused an increase in infections whose cases require hospital treatment.

In the United States, the new variant is responsible for 4 out of 10 cases, up from two out of 10 a week ago.

The new variant is originally branched from the "Omicron" variant, which began to spread in late 2021.

According to the currently available information, the mutant has "XBB.1.5 " mutations that lead to people becoming more infected than their predecessors and evading protection from vaccinations and previous infections.

British experts told The "Daily Mail" that the new mutant represents an alarm bell for the authorities in Britain and may aggravate the health crisis, represented by the double pandemic: Corona and influenza.

But British officials said there was no indication that the new variant had increased the severity of infections compared to other variants.

Data from the Sanger Institute, one of the largest covid-19 disease surveillance centers in Britain, showed that 4 percent of infections up to the week that ended on December 17 were caused by the new mutant, "the report said.

This is the first time that the new mutant has been included in the weekly list published by the Institute on a weekly basis.