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Mumbai: A case of the XE recombinant SARS-CoV-2 variant has been detected in Mumbai, according to an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
A woman who arrived from South Africa in February was found to have this omicron sub-variant, according to the BMC, and that she was asymptomatic and has since recovered from the infection.
At the same time, ANI quoted unnamed sources in the government saying an analysis by experts at India’s SARS-CoV-2 genome-sequencing consortium suggested that the genetic sample from this individual didn’t match characteristics of the XE variant.
FastQ files in respect of the sample, which is being said to be ‘XE’ variant were analysed in detail by genomic experts of INSACOG who have inferred that the genomic constitution of this variant does not correlate with the genomic picture of ‘XE’ variant: Official sources
— ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2022
The BMC had sequenced genetic samples from 376 individuals at the municipal Kasturba Hospital’s facilities in Mumbai.
On Tuesday, April 5, Mumbai had reported 56 COVID-19 cases – a three-fold rise from a day earlier. The death toll remained unchanged at 19,559, with no new fatalities being recorded.
A BMC official told PTI that the XE recombinant variant appears to be 10% more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of omicron. Thus far, the BA.2 sub-variant has been found to be the most transmissible of all known strains of the virus, according to the WHO.
‘Recombinant’ means the genome of the XE variant is a combination of the genomes of the BA.1 and the BA.2 sub-variants.
According to Mangala Gomare (speaking to PTI), executive health officer of the BMC, the woman whom BMC said contracted an infection of the XE recombinant variant had tested positive infection three weeks after arriving from South Africa on February 10, and that she had received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
When she arrived in India, she tested negative for COVID-19, before testing positive on March 2. She was then quarantined in a local hotel.
(With PTI inputs)