Gandhinagar: A case of XE, a sub-variant of Omicron, has been detected in Gujarat.The patient tested positive for Covid-19 on March 13 and recovered in a week.
Earlier this week, a patient with foreign travel history was reported to have contacted the XE variant but the Health Ministry had denied the report saying that the “present evidence does not suggest the presence of the new variant”.
“Hours after report of detection of XE variant of Coronavirus in Mumbai, @MoHFW_INDIA has said present evidence does not suggest the presence of the new variant,” PIB Maharashtra said in a tweet on Thursday.
It alluded to a Health Ministry explanation on a COVID XE Variant case reported in Mumbai.
The Health Ministry said FastQ files in respect of the sample, which is being said to be #XEVariant were analysed in detail by genomic experts of INSACOG who have inferred that the genomic constitution of this variant does not correlate with the genomic picture of ‘XE’ variant”.
According to the World Health Organization, the new mutant could be more transmissible than any COVID-19 variant.
The World Health Organization has announced that a new COVID mutant known as ‘XE’ has been discovered in the United Kingdom, and that it may be more transmissible than COVID-19’s BA.2 sublineage. However, Indian virologists have stated that it is unclear if the variety is robust enough to create another COVID outbreak in the country, while also advising caution and COVID-appropriate behaviour.
XE is a COVID-19 recombination of the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 sublineages.
“The XE recombinant (BA.1-BA.2), was first detected in the United Kingdom on January 19 and >600 sequences have been reported and confirmed since,” the WHO had said.
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