A case of Omicron’s new XE sub-variant has been spotted in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation announced on Wednesday.
The BMC said the results were obtained from genome sequencing of 376 samples, the 11th round of testing at the genome sequencing lab.
The XE patient from Mumbai arrived from South Africa on February 10, Dr. Mangala Gomare said. Before that, she has no travel history. She is vaccinated with the two doses of the Comimaty vaccine.
The condition of patients infected with the new virus strains is not serious, the BMC official added.
Here’s everything you need to know about the new Covid strain:
– Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert about a new mutant ‘XE’ variant of Omicron that may be more transmissible than any what strain Covid-19.
– The WHO, in its new report, has highlighted its first conclusions on this potentially worrying new strain. According to the report, the new variant is a recombinant strain and a mutant hybrid of the two previous versions of the Omicron variant, BA.1 and BA.2.
– Recombinant XE (BA.1-BA.2) was first detected in the UK on January 19 and since then less than 600 sequences have been reported and confirmed.
– While XE accounts for only a small fraction of cases, its extremely high transmissibility could make it the most dominant strain in the near future, according to the WHO.
– The new variant is 10% more transmissible than the most contagious BA.2 subvariant.
– The global health authority noted that XE will remain classified as the Omicron variant until they “can identify significant differences in disease transmission and characteristics, including severity”.
– According to the UN agency, more details are awaited on whether or not there is a significant difference in the characteristics and severity of the disease between the previous strains of Omicron and the XE strain
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