A 67-year-old man in Gujarat got the XE sub-variant of the Sars-CoV-2 Omicron variant a month ago, state officials said on Saturday, adding that the patient had moderate symptoms and recovered quickly.

There was no official comment from central agencies about the case, but officials familiar with the situation claimed on the condition of anonymity that the person tested positive for the XE sub-variant.

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According to Gujarat government officials, the man was infected with the XE strain based on a report from a laboratory in Gandhinagar, which was cross-checked and confirmed by a facility in Kolkata.

Rajesh Tope, the Health Minister of Maharashtra, had stated,  “The man had arrived from London on March 6 and came in contact with two Britishers. On March 11, he experienced a mild fever. On March 12, he was tested during his stay in Vadodara and the sample was sent for genome sequencing to the Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre.”

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The Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) discovered the XE variation, and the material was forwarded to a laboratory in Kolkata for confirmation in accordance with the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomic Consortium (INSACOG) criteria. A confirmation report was received later.

 “The person who tested positive for XE Covid variant had mild symptoms and had soon recovered. As per our information, the patient is doing fine presently and is at his home in Mumbai,” said Manoj Agarwal, Gujarat’s additional chief secretary of health and family welfare.

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XE has the spike protein and other critical structural traits of the BA.2, which experts believe will operate similarly to the BA.2, a variety that has already spread rapidly in India.

The BA.1 and BA.2 omicron sublineages of COVID recombine to create XE.

Early estimates imply that the XE version is 10% more transmissible than BA.2, however research is still in its early stages. Vaccinated people, according to the WHO, are better protected against the new form.