Mumbai reports first case of Omicron sub-variant XE; it is more transmissible, says WHO

MUMBAI: Amid growing concerns about the resurgence of Covid-19 in some parts of the world, the Mumbai civic body - BMC - on Wednesday confirmed the detection of the first case of Omicron's new sub-variant XE in the city.

"Results of 11th test under the Covid virus genetic formula determination - 228 or 99.13% (230 samples) patients detected with Omicron. One patient is affected by the 'XE' variant and another is affected by the 'Kapa' variant of Covid-19,'' the Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.

 

Maharashtra | Results of 11th test under the Covid virus genetic formula determination - 228 or 99.13% (230 samples) patients detected with Omicron. One patient affected by 'XE' variant and another is affected by the 'Kapa' variant of COVID19: Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation — ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2022

 

Sharing more details, BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said that out of 376 samples that were tested by the Next Generation Genome Sequencing Lab at Kasturba Hospital of BMC and the National Institute of Virology at Pune, 230 were residents of Mumbai.

Omicron XE variant -What we know so far

 

The WHO has recently warned that the new Covid variant found in the UK, called XE, maybe more transmissible than any strain of COVID-19. XE is a "recombinant" which is a mutation of BA'1 and BA.2 Omicron strains, it global health body said. 

Recombinant mutations emerge when a patient is infected by multiple variants of Covid. The variants mix up their genetic material during replication and form a new mutation, UK experts said in a paper published in British Medical Journal.

The World Health Organisation said that the new mutation XE appears to be 10 per cent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron. 

When was XE first detected?

 

Britain's health agency said that XE was first detected on January 19 and 637 cases of the new variant have been reported yet. 

Meanwhile, the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron is spreading rapidly across the globe. Some 4.9 million people in the UK are estimated to have had Covid-19 in the week ending March 26, or 600,000 more than the previous week, the latest survey by the Office for National Statistics said.

US and China have also reported a surge in Covid cases driven by the BA.2 variant.

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