67-year-old man tested positive for XE variant, fully recovered: Gujarat official

Ahmedabad: A 67-year-old man contracted the XE sub-variant of the Sars-CoV-2 Omicron variant in Gujarat a month ago, state officials said on Saturday and added that the patient had mild symptoms and soon recovered.

There was no official statement from central agencies on the case but officials aware of the matter said on condition of anonymity that the person did test positive for the XE sub-variant.

State officials said that the man tested positive for Covid-19 on March 12. The Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) detected the XE variant a few days ago, after which the sample was sent for confirmation to a laboratory in Kolkata as per the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomic Consortium (INSACOG) guidelines. The confirmation report was received on Friday night.

“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,” Manoj Agarwal, Gujarat’s additional chief secretary of health and family welfare, said.

In terms of its genetic makeup, XE has the spike protein and other key structural features of the BA.2, which experts said suggests will behave similar to the BA.2, a variant that has already spread widely in India.