The Omicron XE is not expected to dodge the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, a member of the Department of Health’s (DOH’s) Technical Advisory Group said on Tuesday, April 5.

Dr. Edsel Maurice T. Salvaña, an infectious disease expert, said that Omicron XE is a recombinant of the two sub-lineages of Omicron--- BA.1 and BA.2, adding that its spike protein is BA.2

“So ang ibig sabihin nito most of our vaccines kasi really target BA.1 and BA.2 na medyo may breakthrough infection. So we really don’t expect mas mataas ‘yung rate nung infection ng any of these recombinants more than their parent lineages so ang nakita lang so far sa XE at XF mukhang wala namang growth advantage hindi naman siya nag-te-takeover (So this means that most of our vaccines really target BA.1 and BA.2 which have a bit of breakthrough infection. So we really don’t expect the infection rate of any of these recombinants to be higher than their parent lineages so what we have seen so far in XE and XF seems to be that there is no growth advantage, it is not taking over),” he said during a virtual briefing.

“At ngayon mino-monitor closely lalong-lalo itong (And now we are closely monitoring) XE there’s a possibility it can come in but we don’t expect it to be more severe, and we don’t expect it to touch vaccines any worse than BA.1 and BA.2,” Salvaña added.

The Omicron XE reportedly has a 10 percent growth rate, making it more contagious than Omicron BA.2.

On Monday, April 4, the DOH said it is coordinating with the World Health Organization (WHO) should any developments regarding Omicron XE come out.

The Omicron XE was recently detected in Bangkok, Thailand.

With the help of the Philippine Genome Center, the agency continuously monitors case trends and conducts genomic surveillance activities.