Not believed to cause more serious illness than other variants, the XBB.1.5 strain of Omicron called ‘Kraken’ has been detected in Finland. The XBB.1.5 strain was first detected last autumn in the United States, and has spread rapidly since then: it is considered to be easily contagious, and it effectively evades immune protection. Some experts call it the most transmissible variant yet and anticipate that it will rapidly spread around the world. Read more on YLE.fi
