Condition of India's 1st patient with Omicron XE variant not serious

A boy receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in a school on the outskirts of Agartala, the capital city of India's northeastern state of Tripura, March. 16, 2022. (Str/Xinhua)

"The condition of the patients infected with the new strains of the virus was not serious," an Indian official said.  

NEW DELHI, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The condition of India's first patient said to be infected with the Omicron XE variant of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is not serious, the media report quoted a local health official as saying on Wednesday.

The female patient arrived in Mumbai from South Africa on Feb. 10, according to the report.

According to the official, 228 out of the 230 samples from Mumbai are of Omicron variant, one is found to be of Kappa variant, and the other an Omicron XE variant.

"The condition of the patients infected with the new strains of the virus was not serious," the official said.

"The XE mutant appears to be 10 percent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron. So far, BA.2 was deemed to be the most contagious of all the COVID-19 variants," he added.■