A man in his sixties from Gujarat’s Vadodara is reportedly the first patient to be tested positive for Omicron sub-variant XE in India, as reported by Economic Times. According to health officials cited by the ET, the man travelled to Vadodara from Mumbai on March 12.
Dr. Devesh Patel, Medical Officer, Vadodara Municipal Corporation was quoted as saying by the ET, “Since he was from outside the state, his sample was sent for genome sequencing and the results revealed that this was a case of Omicron XE variant.”
Earlier, media reports that had indicated the presence of a case of the XE recombinant variant in Mumbai were refuted by the Union Health Ministry. PIB Maharashtra had said in a tweet, “Hours after report of detection of XE variant of Coronavirus in Mumbai, @MoHFW_INDIA has said present evidence does not suggest the presence of the new variant.”
