India reported its first case of variant XE of Covid from Mumbai on Wednesday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) confirmed the presence of the new XE variant in a media release.
Notably, one case of the Kappa variant was also detected. However, patients with these new variants of coronavirus did not report having any severe symptoms so far.
This new coronavirus mutant may be even more transmissible than any previous strains of COVID-19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.
The patient in Mumbai is a 50-year-old costume designer. She had a travel history to South Africa in the month of February. The woman tested positive for Covid on March 2, as per BMC.
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Moreover, XE is a “recombinant,” a mutation of BA’1 and BA.2 Omicron strains.
What are Recombinant Covid mutations?
These emerge when a patient gets infected by multiple variants of Covid. The variants end up mixing up their genetic materials during replication thereby forming a new mutation. The UK experts mention this in a paper published in British Medical Journal.
Furthermore, the WHO calls this new mutation XE be 10 per cent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant.
India recently opened up its regular international flights after the Covid cases went down. Life has come back on track for almost all the sectors of the economy now.
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