The Department of Science announced that COVID HK.3 is not a new strain. It has roots from XBB.1.16 in Thailand. XBB.1.15, XBB.1.16 and EG.5 have also been found.

Dr. Suphakit Sirilak, Director-General of the Department of Medical Sciences Announcing an update on the COVID-19 strain in Thailand and Omicron HK.3 that at this time the COVID situation People live normal lives. But the strain of the virus still needs to be monitored. Most recently, the World Health Organization still ranks the strains under surveillance in the Omicron group. The interesting strains that need to be kept an eye on are XBB.1.15, XBB.1.16 and EG.5. There are no other strains that need special monitoring. As for the case of finding the HK.3 strain of Covid, it is confirmed that it is not a new strain, but a strain that has roots and original parents from EG.5.1.13 and XBB .19.2.5.1.1.3, which are worldwide in GSAID data around the world. Found 127 samples from 12 countries, mostly found in China and South Korea, with only 2 samples found in Thailand. They are members of the same family, female, 65 years old and 11 years old. Their symptoms are now back to normal. Didn’t have any severe symptoms at all. The part that is concerned about avoiding immunity from Covid HK. 3, it was found that HK.3 has a change in the position of the spikes in the 455F and F45L proteins. As for the comparison with XBB.1.16, it may avoid 95% of the spikes. It must be clarified that it is still too early to draw conclusions. This is because the sample size was too small for statistics. .

Source: Thai News Agency