New Covid XE Variant Detected in Mumbai? Centre Doesn't Think So

India's first case of Coronavirus variant XE, said to be highly transmissible than Omicron and Delta variants, was detected in Mumbai on Wednesday, the civic body BMC claimed. However, the Union Health Ministry disagreed saying present evidence does not suggest presence of the variant.

"FASTQ files in respect of the sample, which is being said to be XE variant, were analysed in detail by genomic experts of INSACOG who have inferred that genomic constitution of this variant does not correlate with genomic picture of XE variant," an official said.

In addition to this, one Kappa variant has also been reported. The patients found affected with the new variants of COVID-19, however, don't have any severe symptoms so far. The Mumbai civic body said the sample will be sent to the National Institute of Biochemical Genomics (NIBMG) for further testing to confirm the variant.
The new

variant XE variant is a combination of Omicron - BA.1 and BA.2 However, this variant is considered to be more transmissible than Omicron and Delta is not a 'Variant of Concern' yet.

As per reports, the 50-year-old patient had arrived from South Africa on February 10, 2022 and during an on-arrival RT-PCR test found negative, however, during a routine testing on March 2, 2022, she was found to be positive and the next day her samples returned negative.

The BMC's latest sero survey report reveals out of 230 samples sent, 228 samples found infected with the Omicron variant. One tested positive for the XE variant infection while the other was found to be infected with the Kappa variant.