Gujarat Reports Its First Case Of Covid XE Variant: Report

A person in Gujarat has been infected with Coronavirus variant XE. The new strain was first detected in the UK on 19 January, 2022, and more than 600 cases have been reported and confirmed since then.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Analiza Pathak

Updated: April 9, 2022, 10:39 AM IST

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Gujarat Reports Its First Case Of Covid XE Variant: Report

Ahmedabad: The XE variant of coronavirus, a more infectious but not more severe than the Omicron variety, has been found in Gujarat, The Hindu reported quoting a highly placed official as saying. “Samples from Gujarat have been sent to NCDC, but from what we see this fits the definition of XE more than the Mumbai one,” the person cited earlier said on condition of anonymity. The patient had reportedly tested positive for Covid-19 on March 13 and recovered in a week. According to reports, one case of XM variant has also been detected in the state.

Earlier this week, Mumbai civic officials reported a case of the XE variant from a sample isolated in February, but officials at the Indian Sarscov2 Genome Consortium (INSACOG), a network of labs that tracks sequences, and the Union Health Ministry, are yet to confirm if it is an XE 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.

What is the Omicron XE variant?

1. The new strain was first detected in the UK on 19 January, 2022, and more than 600 cases have been reported and confirmed since then.
2. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a warning against a new mutant ‘XE’ variant of Omicron, that may be more transmissible than any strain of COVID-19 seen before, according to a report by express.co.uk.
3. This new variant is a recombinant strain, meaning it is a mutant hybrid of the two previous versions of the Omicron variant, BA.1 and BA.2, which has spread across the world when it first became a variant of concern, it said.

How dangerous is the XE variant?

1. As per the WHO, BA.2, which is a subvariant of the Omicron strain, is the most dominant strain of the virus, being 86 per cent of all sequenced cases attributed to it.
2. As per the initial studies, the XE variant has a growth rate of 9.8 per cent over that of BA.2, also known as the stealth variant because of its ability to evade detection.
3. A BMC official said the XE variant appears to be 10 per cent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron. So far, BA.2 was deemed to be the most contagious of all the COVID-19 variants.