New Delhi: First case of new sub variant of Omicron, XE, has been reported from Gujarat's Vadodra on Saturday, reports news agency PTI. The sub variant was detected in a person from Mumbai who tested positive in Vadodra, said an official, quoted by the news agency.
The man, who visited Vadodra last month due to some work, had tested positive after he developed some symptoms. He later went back to Mumbai but his report detecting the sub-variant was obtained on Friday, an offiical said adding that the person's current status is not known to Vadodra authorities.
"A man from Santa Cruz in Mumbai, had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 12 during his visit to Vadodara. His wife was accompanying him," Medical Officer of Health, Vadodara Municipal Corporation, Devesh Patel said, quoted the news agency. "He had provided local address of his relatives for his sample. He had returned to Mumbai on his own soon after. No further status of the patient is known to the local authorities," Patel added.
Meanwhile, sources within Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that The genomic analysis of the COVID-19 XE variant sample from Gujarat is still underway and results are expected soon, reported PTI.
1,150 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in India on Saturday with active caseload at 11,365.
READ HERE: Coronavirus Update: India Reports 1,150 COVID Cases, 83 Deaths As Centre Asks States To Keep Vigil
On Wednesday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had said that the first case of Omicron's XE variant has been detected in Mumbai. In its statement the BMC had said that the 50-year-old female patient, a costume designer by profession and a member of a film shooting crew, had arrived from South Africa on February 10, 2022.
Hours later, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare denied any such claims that India has reported its first case of XE sub-variant. "Hours after the 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.
Maharashtra Minister Aditya Thackeray on Thursday had said that the person had recovered and that her contacts have tested negative.
The XE variant is a mutation of the BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron strains, referred to as a "recombinant". A BMC official said the XE variant appears to be 10 per cent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron, which was dominant in the third wave in India.
According to WHO, the XE recombinant variant was first detected in the United Kingdom on January 19 and 600 sequences have been reported and confirmed since.