After the media reports about the detection of the new covid-19 variant XE in Mumbai, India. The union ministry denies the report saying the present evidence does not support the presence of the XE variant.
“Hours after report of detection of XE variant of Coronavirus in Mumbai,
@MoHFW_INDIA has said present evidence does not suggest the presence of the new variant,” PIB Maharashtra said in a tweet.
The ministry said the person who had tested positive for XE Variant is a fully vaccinated 50-year-old woman with no comorbidity and asymptomatic.
“She had come from South Africa on February 10 and had no prior travel history. On arrival, she had tested negative for the virus,” it said.
XE is recombinant of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 sublineages of COVID-19. It is considered more transmissible than the BA.2 sublineage of COVID-19.
The Health Ministry said FastQ files in respect of the sample, which is being said to be #XEVariant were analysed in detail by genomic experts of INSACOG who have inferred that the genomic constitution of this variant does not correlate with the genomic picture of ‘XE’ variant”.
