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Scientists have warned that a “more infectious” variant of the Covid virus, called XEC, is spreading faster across Europe and could soon become the dominant strain.

“At this point, the XEC variant appears to be the most likely variant to come to market next,” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, said in a post on X on Sunday.

Researchers predicted in August that it would take several weeks to a few months for this variant to emerge and spread more quickly.

“XEC is absolutely taking the lead,” said Dr. Topol.

XEC, a sublineage of the omicron variant, was first reported in Berlin, Germany, in June and is now spreading “quite rapidly” across Europe, North America and Asia, according to Covid data analyst Mike Honey.

Slovenia had a high infection rate with this variant in August, as more than 10 percent of Covid case samples from the country contained XEC.

It is a hybrid of previously discovered omicron subvariants – KS.1.1 and KP.3.3 – of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid.

KS.1.1 is a type of what is commonly called a FLiRT variant.

It is characterized by mutations in the building blocks of the molecules phenylalanine (F) to leucine (L) and arginine (R) to threonine (T) on the spike protein that the virus uses to attach to human cells.

The second omicron subvariant KP.3.3 belongs to the FLuQE category, in which the amino acid glutamine (Q) on the spike protein is mutated to glutamic acid (E), making binding to human cells more effective.

So far, XEC has been detected in over 500 samples from 27 countries, including Poland, Norway, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Portugal and China.

Analysts point to strong growth of the variant in Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

As the novel coronavirus continues to evolve, data suggests that XEC is growing steadily every day, giving it an advantage over previously known subvariants.

Symptoms are similar to those of previous Covid variants, including fever, sore throat, cough, loss of sense of smell, loss of appetite and body aches.

But because it’s still just a subfamily of the same omicron lineage, experts say keeping up with vaccinations and booster shots provides enough protection against serious illness and hospitalization.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention also advises people to practice good hygiene and take steps to clean the air.

Researchers have called for closer monitoring of the XEC variant to better understand its symptoms.