INSACOG confirms XE variant, says ‘no reason to panic’

The Indian SARS-COV2 Genomics Sequencing Consortium (INSACOG) has confirmed the first case of Omicron sub-variant XE, weeks after unconfirmed cases were reported from Maharashtra and Gujarat.

While the sub-variant is found to be 10 per cent more transmissible than the current dominant Omicron variant BA.2, experts say it is yet to be known infection caused by XE is different from that triggered by other lineages of the virus.

“Less than a handful of recombinant variants have been detected in the country so far. All of them from geographically disparate regions. No cluster formation has been seen,” Indian Express quoted a government official as saying.

INSACOG, which confirmed about the sub-variant in its weekly bulletin, did not reveal from where the XE sample was obtained from. An official also told IE that the sample from Maharashtra was not of the XE sub-variant.

It, however, said that BA.2 variant of Omicron is currently the dominant variant in the country. The bulletin also confirmed two more sub-lineages of the BA sub variant – BA2.10 and BA2.12, which were first reported in Delhi two weeks back.

The XE variant, which was first discovered in the UK in January this year, has been dubbed a “recombinant,” meaning a variant that contains mutations found in BA.1 and BA.2 variants of Omicron.

Health experts, however, have said that there is no need to panic as the XE variant is yet to show any red flags on transmissibility or ability to cause severe diseases.

“It is a fun exercise for molecular epidemiologists to record all changes in the virus,” a government official told IE, adding, “But it has no public health significance unless we see it spreading faster, affecting a different population, or causing severe diseases.”

The confirmation of the virus comes amid a slight rise in COVID-19 cases in 12 states, prompting several governments to impose the mandatory wearing of masks.