The first case of the more transmissible COVID-19 variant XE was detected in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The new mutant may be more transmissible than any strain of COVID-19, World Health Organisation had said last week. So far, BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron was deemed to be the most contagious of all the COVID-19 variants.
The XE variant is a mutation of the BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron strains, referred to as a “recombinant”. As per the initial studies, the XE variant has a growth rate of 9.8% over that of BA.2, also known as the stealth variant because of its ability to evade detection.
The Mumbai patient is a 50-year-old costume designer who returned from South Africa in February. She tested positive for COVID-19 on 2 March.
Of the 230 samples from Mumbai, 228 samples are of Omicron variant, while one was found to be Kappa variant and another XE variant.
The condition of the patients infected with the new strains of the virus was not serious, the official said in press release.
The new strain was detected in the UK at the start of the new year. The UK’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.
