Zoom News : Apr 07, 2022, 07:37 AM
Mumbai : The Union Health Ministry and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are face-to-face over whether cases of new sub-variant XE of Corona have been found in Mumbai. Sources close to the health ministry have contradicted BMC's claims that genome sequencing of the patient's sample does not confirm the XE variant.Earlier on Wednesday, the BMC had claimed that a new sub-variant XE of Corona has been confirmed in a 50-year-old woman who is showing no symptoms of corona. The corona infected woman has applied both doses of the vaccine. According to the BMC, the sample will be sent to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) for further analysis to confirm the new variant. The Union Health Ministry has become alert after BMC's claim. However, health ministry sources have denied the presence of the XE variant in the patient's sample.10 highlights of the XE sub-variant:>> This may be the most contagious covid version ever.>> The World Health Organization (WHO) states that the Xe subvariant appears to be 10 percent more contagious than Omicron's Ba.2.>> The WHO says the XE mutation is currently being tracked as part of the Omicron variant. Symptoms of Omicron include fever, sore throat, cough, cold, skin irritation, etc.>> There have been around 637 cases since it was first detected in the UK on 19 January.>> The UK health body is studying XD, XE and XF. XD is derived from Omicron's BA.1. At the same time, XF is a recombinant version of Delta and BA.1.>> The report quoted Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Officer of the UK Health Protection Agency (UKHSA), as saying that such a variant is known as a "recombinant".>> The XE variant has also been detected in Thailand and New Zealand. The WHO has said that more data is needed before anything else can be said about the mutation.>> There is no evidence that XE is more severe in disease severity. So far all Omicron variants have been observed to be less severe.