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TWO new Covid substrains have began circulating in the UK.
The new threats, named BQ.1 and XBB, are descendants of Omicron – the dominant strain currently making its way around the country.
Both are evolved versions of Omicron and have mutated which make them behave slightly differently.
Omicron, the Covid variant which sent the UK into it’s second national lockdown in November 2021, is considered to be more transmissible but less deadly than its predecessors alpha, beta and delta.
Little is known of the severity of BQ.1 and XBB but experts believe both are better at dodging immunity than their parent virus, Omicron.