Amid mounting concerns over the new 'XE' variant of COVID and a day after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation reported its first case in Mumbai, Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday said that person with the suspected new variant has recovered fully.
He took to Twitter and wrote,"The person with the suspected new variant has recovered fully & the high-risk contacts have been covid negative. The samples have been sent to NIBMG, to reconfirm the type of strain. We are constantly working to ensure that we are all safe. I urge people to not panic."
Earlier in the day state health minister Rajesh Tope said that state health department has not received any confirmation about the variant and thus cannot confirm it.
"As per information, XE variant is only 10 per cent more infectious than the Omicron variant. We will talk more about it in detail after getting a report. Since we have not received a confirmatory report from the Centre or NIB, Maharashtra health department does not confirm it," Tope told ANI.
The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday claimed that a female costume designer of South African origin has been found to be infected with the new XE variant in the city.
XE is recombinant of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 sublineages of COVID-19.