Mumbai's first case of Omicron XE detected, had travelled to Vadodra

It's official. The first case of coronavirus variant Omicron XE has been detected in Mumbai, and confirmed by the NCDC, Delhi, officials said on Saturday.

The infectee is a 67-year-old male who had travelled from Mumbai to Gujarat's Vadodara, where he suffered from mild fever on March 12.

His samples were sent for genome sequencing tests and the results, which came out on Saturday, showed it to be Omicron XE.

He was fully vaccinated with Covishied, is totally asymptomatic and stable, and now the process to trace his contacts is currently underway.

The development comes three days after a major fiasco when a South African woman film costume designer was declared as Omicron XE infectee, but, later the Centre denied it.

The Omicron XE variant is a combination of BA.1 and BA.2 strains of Omicron and is found to be responsible for enhanced viral transmission as per preliminary reports.

The government has said there is no cause for worry as frequent changes in the genomic structure are part of the natural life course of viruses, but advised people to exercise all precautions.