XBB.1.16 is similar to the XBB.1.15 variant, but "adds a mutation in the spike protein, which has been shown in laboratory studies to increase the infectivity of the virus, as well as potentially enhanced pathogenicity." ”
It is because some people will be infected with two new crown variants at the same time, two different variants interact during replication, and when their genetic material mixes, it is possible to produce a new hybrid or recombinant variant that may be more adapted to the human body and more transmissible than its parent variant.
Compared with the previous week's report, a total of 138 new cases of the variant of concern were added, and among the 138 cases, XBB.1.16 and its subvariant XBB.1.16.1 accounted for 17 cases, and these cases did not appear in the previous week's report, which shows that the XBB.1.16 variant spreads quickly and has quickly entered the mainland.
After XBB.1.16 infects the human body, it will also cause high fever, muscle pain, sore throat and other symptoms of viral infection, and the new variant XBB.1.16 also causes a new symptom, that is, conjunctivitis symptoms in young infected people, which will cause redness, itching, pain, foreign body sensation, etc. in the eyes of infected people, which is very rare in the previous infection of the new coronavirus strain, and after XBB.1.16 infection, this situation is more common.