Indian state Gujarat has detected its first case of the highly transmissible Omicron XE variant of Covid-19.
A 60-year-old man tested positive for the infection last month and later returned to Mumbai. But the report about detection of the XE sub-variant in him was received on April 8, reports Firstpost.
XE, the latest mutant of Omicron may be more transmissible than the previous ones, the World Health Organization has said.
"A man from Santa Cruz in Mumbai, had tested positive for Covid-19 on March 12 during his visit to Vadodara (a city in Gujarat). His wife was accompanying him," Vadodara Municipal Corporation Medical Officer of Health Devesh Patel said.
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The man visited Vadodara due to some work and stayed at a hotel. After developing fever, he got himself tested for Covid at a private lab, the result of which came positive, Patel said.
"He was found positive on March 12. His sample was sent for genome sequencing. As per the result, declared yesterday (Friday), he was found infected with a new mutant XE variant," he said.
"He had provided local address of his relatives for his sample. He had returned to Mumbai on his own soon after. No further status of the patient is known to the local authorities," Patel added.
The first case of the new Omicron variant, XE, was detected in Mumbai on April 6.
According to the WHO, the XE is a recombinant variant, which means it is a mutant hybrid of the two previous versions of the Omicron variant — BA.1 and BA.2.
However, virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang, a professor at Christian Medical College in Vellore, said the new XE variant of the coronavirus is not a matter of concern as it is not likely to cause any more severity than other sub-variants of Omicron.
