Newly mutant coronavirus variant XE reported in India
The new mutant may be more transmissible than any strain of COVID-19, World Health Organisation had warned recently.
New Delhi: The highly infectious newly mutant coronavirus variant XV was reported in Mumbai on Wednesday.
It was the first case reported in India so far. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said that it has found newly mutant XE variant of coronavirus. One case of the Kappa variant has also been detected. The patients with the new variants of the virus don't have any severe symptoms so far, BMC stated in a press statement.
The new mutant may be more transmissible than any strain of COVID-19, World Health Organisation had warned recently.
According to the NDTV report, the new strain was detected in the UK at the start of the new year. Britain's health agency said on April 3 that XE was first detected on January 19 and 637 cases of the new variant have been reported in the country so far.
The report further reveals that the XE is a "recombinant" which is a mutation of BA'1 and BA.2 Omicron strains. Recombinant mutations emerge when a patient is infected by multiple variants of Covid. The variants mix up their genetic material during replication and form a new mutation, UK experts said in a paper published in British Medical Journal.
The World Health Organisation had said that the new mutation XE appears to be 10 per cent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron.
