According to top sources in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a case of XE, a sub-variant of Omicron which may be the most transmissible strain of the coronavirus yet, has been detected in Gujarat. The patient tested positive for Covid-19 on March 13 and recovered within a week.
After genome-sequencing, it was found that the infected person was infected with the XE version of the coronavirus. However, the sample will be re-tested to confirm whether it is the XE variant, official sources said.
Meanwhile, one case each of the XM variant has also been determined in Mumbai, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The new variant, XE, is a mutant hybrid of two versions of Omicron – BA.1 and BA.2. At the moment it only accounts for a small fraction across the globe.
According to the World Health Organization, it appears to be about ten percent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron.
Until now, Omicron’s BA.2 sub-variant was once considered the most infectious strain of Covid-19.
The XM variant discovered in Mumbai and Gujarat is also a recombinant hybrid of Omicron’s BA.1 and BA.2 lines.
On Wednesday, Mumbai’s civic body announced that India’s first case of the XE variant has been detected in the city. However, the central government does not agree with this result.
The center’s research body, INSACOG, noted that the case would be re-examined. “The case needs to be reconfirmed and find out if the sample is infected with the “recombinant” variant or multiple propagation forms of the virus. We will carry out genome sequencing again to check for multiple exposures,” INSACOG sources told India Today.
The re-examination of the Mumbai case was not completed. The pattern has been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune.
