A new variant of COVID-19 called XEC is spreading rapidly in Europe and other parts of the world, just after a summer with an increased number of COVID cases across the U.S.

Although rates of new COVID infections have fallen since the summer’s surge, there’s a new variant in town, gearing up to fuel winter illnesses. There’s a new vaccine as well, though uptake has been slow so far.

Currently available COVID vaccines target slightly different subvariants. The updated mRNA shots aimed at KP.2 from Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) and Moderna (Spikevax), as well as Novavax's vaccine targeting the JN.1 variant lineage, are still protective against the most serious consequences of COVID infections, experts said.