--- title: What to Know About the New COVID-19 Variant XFG description: The COVID-19 variant XFG is causing more infections and hospitalizations in Southeast Asia. canonical: https://time.com/7300451/new-covid-19-variant-xfg/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-07-07T16:28:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T01:11:44.578Z article:section: Health og:title: What to Know About the New COVID-19 Variant XFG og:description: XFG is causing more infections and hospitalizations in Southeast Asia. og:url: https://time.com/7300451/new-covid-19-variant-xfg/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73a97fef652345ef/6998c804e1ba00d75598db65/GettyImages-1301877080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2120 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: GettyImages-1301877080.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About the New COVID-19 Variant XFG twitter:description: XFG is causing more infections and hospitalizations in Southeast Asia. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73a97fef652345ef/6998c804e1ba00d75598db65/GettyImages-1301877080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About the New COVID-19 Variant XFG > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=f278f421-f937-428c-9ebd-04bf8f97f986&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jul 7, 2025 4:28 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Jul 7, 2025 4:28 PM UTC With [summer travel at an all-time high](https://www.travelmarketreport.com/retail-strategies/articles/gen-z-and-millennials-are-driving-summer-2025-travel-trends), new COVID-19 variants are brewing. Officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) recently [added](https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/25062025%5Fxfg%5Fire.pdf?sfvrsn=fab54cd7%5F1) another one to its list of variants under monitoring: XFG. XFG is spreading most widely in Southeast Asia, although cases have been reported in 38 countries. In the U.K., it accounts for [30%](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/stratus-covid-variant-symptoms-signs-vaccine-uk-b2783498.html) of COVID-19 infections, and in the U.S., [14%](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions) of confirmed cases are XFG, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (These data are likely incomplete: the CDC notes that since less data are being reported, the variant trackers are not precise.) Here's what we know so far about XFG. ## **It's a "variant under monitoring**" This designation is the least urgent of WHO’s variant categories, which escalate from "variant under monitoring" to "variant of interest" to "variant of concern." But while variants under monitoring pose a low immediate risk to people, they show signs of being able to grow and potentially spread more easily than other circulating variants that don't get an official WHO designation. WHO is watching XFG closely, but it is so new that experts aren’t sure yet what the health consequences of such growth might be. **Read More**: [_Still Not Feeling the Same After COVID-19? You’re Not Alone_](https://time.com/7292910/covid-symptoms-long-covid/) ## **XFG is different from existing variants** XFG is still in the Omicron family. It derives from the [JN.1 Omicron](https://time.com/6548748/jn1-covid-variant/) group, which is the target of the [latest COVID-19 vaccine](https://time.com/7287451/fda-new-covid-19-vaccine-guidance/). XFG is a combination of two other variants that have recombined: LF.7 and LP.8.1.2\. It is growing globally. Samples of XFG sent to the global database of genetic virus sequences jumped from 7% of all COVID-19 samples in May 2025 to nearly 23% a few weeks later, according to WHO. Compared to the variant NB.1.8.1—which is currently dominant in many countries, including in the U.S.—XFG contains nine additional mutations in the spike protein. ## Vaccines seem to work against it Scientists are currently studying how well people are protected against severe disease from XFG. Researchers [conducted lab studies](https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/25062025%5Fxfg%5Fire.pdf?sfvrsn=fab54cd7%5F1) using human cells and a "pseudovirus" stand-in for XFG, as well as animal studies, and found slightly lower immune responses to XFG. While the data aren't complete yet, those results are encouraging since they suggest that existing vaccines used in the U.S., which [target JN.1](https://www.cdc.gov/covid/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html), should continue to provide some protection against severe disease and hospitalization—even if it's less robust than protection against the JN.1 variant specifically. WHO says the genetic analysis of XFG also shows that antiviral drugs nirmatrelvir ([Paxlovid](https://time.com/6553027/paxlovid-for-young-healthy-adults/)) and remdesivir (Veklury) should also be effective. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7300451/new-covid-19-variant-xfg/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7300451/new-covid-19-variant-xfg/"},"headline":"What to Know About the New COVID-19 Variant XFG","datePublished":"2025-07-07T16:28:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T01:11:44.578Z","description":"XFG is causing more infections and hospitalizations in Southeast Asia.","url":"https://time.com/7300451/new-covid-19-variant-xfg/","keywords":["COVID-19"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73a97fef652345ef/6998c804e1ba00d75598db65/GettyImages-1301877080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73a97fef652345ef/6998c804e1ba00d75598db65/GettyImages-1301877080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-1301877080.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7300451/new-covid-19-variant-xfg/","name":"What to Know About the New COVID-19 Variant XFG"}}]}] ```