XE, DeltaCron under close scrutiny: Maha COVID-task force expert on recombinants

In its bulletin, the Maharashtra health department said the new variant was found in a vaccinated 50-year-old woman, a South African national, with no comorbidities and asymptomatic. She had arrived from South Africa on February 10 and had no prior travel history. On arrival, she had tested negative for the virus, but tested positive a few days later. However, the genome sequencing data of the civic body came out on Wednesday.

Noting that recombinants need to be looked at closely, Maharashtra government’s Covid-19 working member Shashank Joshi explained that Omron BA.1 and BA.2 recombinants – namely XE XL XH XJ (based on geography) – BA. behave more like .2. – More permeable but virulence still unknown.

Again for XD-Delta, Omicron recombinant (known as DeltaCron), they said it is “more transmissible but virulence unknown.” Both types need to be watched closely but without panic.

Earlier this morning, Gujarat Health Ministry confirmed that one case of XE variant has been detected in the state. Manoj Agarwal, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat said, “We are in touch with the Maharashtra and Gujarat governments. The Biotechnology Research Center found the mutation in the sample hence the need for genome sequencing after which the sample was sent to Kolkata where they have confirmed the sample as XE variant.”

The World Health Organization recently stated that a new COVID mutant ‘XE’ has been found in the UK and noted that it may be more transmitted than the BA.2 sub-lineage of COVID-19. However, virologists in India have said that it is not clear if the variant is strong enough to cause another COVID wave in the country, even as they took precautions and tested positive for COVID- Advised to follow appropriate behavior.