India's first XE variant in Maharashtra: Health dept yet to confirm, says minister Rajesh Tope

On being asked about the new 'XE' variant of Covid-19, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that "the health department has not arrived on any confirmation on the 'XE' variant as there's no NIB (National Institute of Biologicals) report yet. There's no need to panic."

Earlier on Wednesday (April 6), government sources denied media reports that claimed the first case of the variant had been detected in the country and said that evidence doesn't suggest the presence of COVID XE mutant in India. The government sources said that FastQ files of the sample, which is said to be XE variant, were analysed by INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium) which inferred that the genomic constitution of this variant doesn't correlate with the genomic picture of XE. "Present evidence does not suggest that it is XE variant of Covid-19," a source said. 

The World Health Organisation had recently said that a new Covid mutant XE has been found in the UK and noted that it may be more transmissible than the BA.2 sublineage of Covid-19. However, the virologists in India have said that it is not clear that the variant is strong enough to cause another Covid wave in the country even as they advised to exercise caution and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour. 

"As per info, the XE variant is 10% more infectious than the Omicron variant which is like flu. We'll talk more about it in detail after getting a report; haven't received a confirmatory report from the Centre or NIB, so Maharashtra's health dept doesn't confirm it," Rajesh Tope further said.

The XE variant is a recombinant of BA.1 and BA.2, the sub-lineages of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19. In addition to those, it has three other mutations which were not there in Omicron or BA.1 or BA.2. "That is why it is called XE. It will now be a variant," Rakesh Mishra, Director of the Tata Institute of Genetics and Society, Bengaluru said.

(With Agency inputs)

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