1st case of XE variant in Mumbai, data to be sent for confirmation

MUMBAI: The first case of XE, a more transmissible COVID-19 variant, was detected in Mumbai on Wednesday, officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

But the data of the patient, a South African resident who has recovered from the infection since, will be sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBGM) for further confirmation, a civic official said later.

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) experts were conducting genomic analysis of the coronavirus case reported as that of XE variant by Mumbai civic officials though scientific evidence so far does not indicate it to be so, official sources said. A woman who arrived from South Africa in February was found to have this Omicron sub-variant, BMC officials claimed earlier, adding that she was asymptomatic and recovered from the infection. Besides, a case of the Kappa variant of coronavirus was also detected during a sero survey, a BMC official said, adding the results came in genome sequencing of 376 samples, the 11th batch of testing in the local genome sequencing lab.

As controversy arose over the accuracy of the BMC’s finding, a civic official said late at night that the Kasturba Hospital’s Genome Sequencing Lab’s head Dr Jayavanti Shashtri participated in the INSACGO meeting, and was asked to send the sequencing data for further confirmation to the NIBMG.