Covid case detected in Mumbai is XE variant, confirms BMC
The Covid-19 case that was reported in Mumbai a few days ago has been confirmed as the new XE variant, said BMC on Saturday.
A 67-year-old man who had traveled to Vadodara tested positive for Covid on 11 March in a hotel. As he was asymptomatic, he returned back to Mumbai. His results were sent to genome sequencing, after which it was found that the fully vaccinated man has the XE variant of Covid-19.
BMC officials said that the man is now completely stable, and has no symptoms.
Officials said that the XE mutant appears to be 10 percent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron. So far, BA.2 was deemed to be the most contagious of all the COVID-19 variants.