A day after the Maharashtra Health Department reported a possible case of the new ‘XE’ variant of COVID-19 in Mumbai, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday said the Health Department was yet to receive any confirmation on this count from the Centre.
“According to information, the ‘XE’ variant is only 10% more infectious than the Omicron variant. Since we have not received a confirmatory report from the Centre or the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB), the Maharashtra Health Department cannot confirm it. We will talk more about it in detail after getting confirmatory reports,” Mr. Tope said, stressing that there was no cause for panic.
South African national’s arrival
On Wednesday, the Health Department reported a suspected ‘XE’ variant case in the form of a 50-year-old lady South African national, who arrived in India in February. The lady was “totally asymptomatic” and “RT-PCR negative” on repeat testing, the Health Department report said.
“She had been tested on February 27 for COVID-19 and found positive. Her lab sample has been referred to the Kasturba Hospital Central laboratory for WGS [Whole-Genome Sequencing]. It has been found to be a new XE variant in initial sequencing. Though the GISAID [Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data] also confirmed it, INSACOG [ Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium] has decided to go for another round of genomic sequencing at the national laboratory for sure confirmation of XE variant,” the report stated.
The new ‘XE’ variant is said to be a combination of the BA.1 and BA.2 strains of Omicron and is believed, as per primary reports, to be responsible for enhanced viral transmission.
The Union Health Ministry, however, said on Wednesday that present evidence did not suggest the presence of the ‘XE’ variant of COVID-19, and refuted media reports that a case of the new mutant was reported in Mumbai.
