A new strain of Covid-19 claimed to be more contagious has been reported in the United Kingdoms (UK) recently with a surge in fresh cases.

Health officials from UK said that it was around 10 per cent more contagious than the Omicron variant BA.2. It has been named XE.

The new variant XE BA.1, derived from the Omicron family, has more contagious than BA.2.

Preliminary studies show that XE strain has an infection rate of 9.8 per cent over the BA.2 strain.

Countries like UK, United States and China are witnessing a fresh surge in cases with the primary variant detected being the BA.2.

A survey by the Office for National Statistics highlighted that around 4.9 million people in the UK tested positive for Covid-19 in the week ending March 26, 6,00,000 more than the previous week.