India on Wednesday recorded its first case of coronavirus variant XE in Mumbai. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said in a media release that one case of the Kappa variant has also been detected.
As per the reports, the patients with the new variants don’t have any severe symptoms so far.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation last week warned that the new mutant may be more transmissible than any strain of COVID-19.
The new variant was detected in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the new year. Britain’s health agency said that XE was first detected on January 19.
XE is a recombinant which is a mutation of BA’1 and BA.2 Omicron strains. The WHO had said that the new mutation is likely to be 10% more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron.