WHO Announces COVID XFG Is a ‘Variant Under Monitoring’

The variant is different from one that is currently dominant in the United States and drove infections in China this year.

This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, blue/pink, cultured in the lab. NIAID-RML/AP/The Canadian Press

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently said that a new COVID-19 variant that emerged earlier this year is now a “variant under monitoring,” becoming the second COVID-19 variant to get that designation in the past month.

The XFG variant, which is one of many offshoots of the JN.1 strain, was evaluated by the WHO to pose a low risk at the global level. Sequences of XFG were first reported in January 2025, according to a recent WHO report.