The first case of XE, a more transmissible Covid-19 variant, was dete🦂cted in Mumbai on Wednesday, a civic health official said.
A c🎃ase of the 𒁏Kappa variant was also detected during a sero survey, the official said, adding the results came in genome sequencing of 376 samples, the 11th batch of testing in the local genome sequencing lab.
As per the survey, Omicron variant was found in 228 out of 230 samples (99.13 pe✨r cent cases) from Mumbai, he said.
The genome sequencing of 376 samples was conducted at♔ the municipal Kasturba Hospital’s ꦫGenome Sequencing Lab.
The condition of t𒁃he patients infected with the new strains of the virus was not ser🐬ious, the official said.
Mumbai on Tuesday reported 56 Covid-19 cases, which is a three-fold rise from the additi💟on to the tally a🧜 day earlier, taking the infection count here 10,58,185, a civic official said.
The death toll remained unchanged at 19,559, 𒊎while the recovery count rose by 36 to t🎃ouch 10,38,356, leaving the metropolis with 270 active cases.
The official said the XE mutant appears to be 10 per cent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant꧑ of Omicron. So far, BA.2 was deemed to be the most contagious of all the Covid-19 variants.
The XE var🌳iant is a mutation of the BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron strains, referred toꦐ as a “recombinant”.
As per the initial st♍udies, the XE variant has a growth rate of 9.8 per cent over that of BA.2, also known as the stealth variantꦛ because of its ability to evade detection.
The World Health Organisation has said the lates🐼t mutant may be more transmissibleꦐ than the previous ones.
.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max&format=webp&w=376&dpr=2.0)
