New Covid variant in India? Mumbai says yes, Centre denies

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI , APRIL 7: Hours after Mumbai’s civic body on Wednesday claimed that a case of the new XE variant of Covid-19 had been detected, top sources in Union health ministry said the genome sequencing of the patient’s sample does not indicate the presence of this variant, which is said to be more transmissible than the earlier variants.

According to officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), a 50-year-old woman with international travel history was detected with the XE variant. She was asymptomatic and did not have co-morbididities.

The XE strain,  a variant of Omicron BA1 and BA2, occurs when the person is infected with more than one variant. A large number of XE variant patients were detected in the UK. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of BMC, said the patient is fully vaccinated. “On arrival in Mumbai on February 10, her test came negative. But later during another test, she was detected positive. She was quarantined in a hotel. She is fine. Her test samples came negative on March 3,” Kakani added.

However, a Union health ministry source denied the presence of the variant in the patient’s sample. “Files of the sample, which is being said to be the ‘XE’ variant, were analysed in detail by experts of INSACOG who inferred that the genomic constitution of this variant does not correlate with the genomic picture of ‘XE’ variant,” the source said.

Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) studies and monitors genome sequencing and virus variation of circulating strains of Covid-19 in India. Kakani maintained that BMC had recently carried out genome sequencing of 230 Covid-19 samples, of which one was detected with the XE variant.

The WHO has said that early estimates suggest XE is 10 per cent more contagious than BA.2 (Omicron). However, the global health body has said that this finding requires further confirmation.

-The New Indian Express