Nepal’s experience with XBB.1.16

We need more studies on how much or how long a booster dose can protect us against infection.

A sudden rise in Covid-19 infections has raised many questions, including the possible emergence of new variants/sub-variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It was assumed that the virus circulating in India might have caused the current surge of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Nepal. On April 3, 2023, the Ministry of Health and Population revealed that at least nine sub-variants of Omicron have been circulating in Nepal, where XBB.1.16 sub-variant was found to be the leading cause of the current spike in the SARS-CoV-2 infections, accounting for 42 percent of all sequenced samples. In fact, this Omicron sub-variant (XBB.1.16) was also found to be the main cause of the recent surge of SARS-CoV-2 in India as well. A recent preprint article (not yet peer-reviewed) published by Japanese researchers found that XBB.1.16 is more transmissible (i.e. more contagious) than any other sub-variants of Omicron, and thus warned that sooner or later, the XBB.1.16 sub-variant may spread throughout the world in the coming days. However, little is known about Omicron sub-variant XBB.1.16, which is labelled a “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organisation (WHO).