No reason to panic, INSACOG keeping watch on XE COVID variant cases: Sources

By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], April 9 : The Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomic Consortium (INSACOG) is keeping an eye on XE COVID variant cases in the country with a focus on hospitalisation and incidents of severity while stating that there is no reason to panic, sources said on Saturday.
"Unless this sequence is verified after isolating the virus, we will not be able to comment on it. We will have to wait to know whether it is different or not," sources told ANI.
A case of XE variant was detected in Gujarat, which was Confirmed by the Additional Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Health in Gujarat.
"We are in touch with the Governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Biotechnology research centre found the mutation in the sample that's why genome sequencing is required after which the sample was sent to Kolkata where they have confirmed the sample as an XE variant. We have got confirmation," said Manoj Agarwal, IAS, Additional chief secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat.
He further explained the person found positive for infection travelled from Maharashtra to Baroda in Gujarat.
"A 66-year-old person who travelled to Vadodara's Gotri from Mumbai was staying in a private hotel and showed symptoms of COVID-19 and he tested positive. But he went back by road to Mumbai. We have done contact tracing of three persons and all of them tested negative," he added.