India’s first case of Covid-19 variant XE reported; Details

India registered its first case of the new XE variant of Covid-19 in Mumbai earlier today. First detected in the United Kingdom, the strain is believed to be more transmissible than the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

The 50-year-old woman, who has been infected with XE, is fully vaccinated against the virus and has shown no symptoms so far. She also apparently doesn’t suffer from any co-morbidities. The woman had returned from South Africa on February 10 and had no prior travel history. On arrival, she had tested negative for the virus. However, during a routine test at Suburban diagnostics earlier this month, she was found infected and was then asked to quarantine.

“Results of 11th test under the Covid virus genetic formula determination – 228 or 99.13 percent (230 samples) patients detected with Omicron. One patient affected by ‘XE’ variant and another is affected by the ‘Kapa’ variant of COVID-19,” the Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation reportedly said. The emergence of the new variant, XE – a hybrid of the BA.1 and BA.2 variations of Omicron, was flagged by the World Health Organization (WHO) after it was first detected in the UK in January this year.