Mumbai: First case of new Covid-19 variant, which is a hybrid mutant strain, called XE has been detected in Mumbai. Out of the 376 samples tested, 230 patients from Mumbai were found to be infected with Omicron and one turned positive for the XE variant.
According to reports, XE variant is said to be a hybrid strain of two Omicron sub-variants – BA.1 and BA.2. The new variant is reportedly 10% more transmissible than the BA.2 subvariant, which is already the most contagious.
The XE variant was recently traced in the United Kingdom. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a warning against ‘XE’ variant of Omicron, which may be more transmissible than any strain of Covid-19 seen before. The WHO has also warned that 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.
While XE only accounts for a small fraction of the cases, its extremely high transmissibility could mean that it becomes the most dominant strain in the near future. The global health body has recently issued a report outlining their initial findings of this potentially new variant of concern.
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‘The XE recombinant (BA.1-BA.2), was first detected in the UK on January 19 and less than 600 sequences have been reported and confirmed since’, the report said. ‘WHO continues to closely monitor and assess the public health risk associated with recombinant variants, alongside other SARS-CoV-2 variants, and will provide updates as further evidence becomes available’, it added.
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