First case of Corona variant XE surfaces in Mumbai, symptoms mild

Another case of the Kappa variant has also been detected, but none of the patients have any severe symptoms so far, civic officials said.

Representational image | Pixabay

New Delhi: The first case of Corona variant XE was reported in Mumbai on Wednesday, the city’s civic body said in a statement.

Another case of the Kappa variant has also been detected, but none of the patients have any severe symptoms so far, officials said.

The World Health Organisation said last week that the new XE mutant could be more transmissible than any strain of the Covid-19 so far.

The new strain first surfaced in the UK on 19 January.

XE is a mutation of the BA 1 and BA 2 Omicron strains. It is a recombinant mutation that inflicts a person who is infected by multiple variants of Covid.

These multiple variants mix up their genetic composition during replication to form new mutants like the XE.

WHO has said XE is 10 per cent more transmissible than the BA 2 Omicron variant.

Out of the 230 Mumbai patients, 228 have Omicron and one each have XE and Kappa.

Twenty one patients needed to be hospitalised but none of them needed oxygen.