Gujarat reports first case of COVID 'XE variant' in Vadodara

Coronavirus Updates: The XE variant of coronavirus, a more infectious but not more severe than the Omicron, has been found in Gujarat's Vadodara city.

This is the first case of coronavirus XE variant in the state.

This week, Mumbai civic officials also reported a similar case of the XE variant from a sample isolated in February, but officials at the Indian Sarscov2 Genome Consortium (INSACOG), a network of labs that tracks sequences, and the Union Health Ministry, are yet to confirm if it is an XE variant.

Also, as many as 34 students of the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) Gandhinagar tested Covid-19 positive on Friday (April 8) with the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) declaring the campus a containment zone

GNLU had commenced physical classes from April 4 and had freshers’ week planned for the week to welcome two batches- those who were admitted in 2020 and 2021- which had to be cut short on April 7 after the first case came to light.

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Meanwhile, the Central government has also written letters to five states reporting marginal surge in Covid cases to continue monitoring the spread of fresh infections, officials said on Friday (April 8).

The Union Health Ministry has asked five states namely- Kerala, Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi and Mizoram- to continue monitoring the spread of infection and undertake prompt steps to manage the Covid spread.

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Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary, has directed these states in the letters to conduct regular monitoring and follow up action in emerging areas of concern.

"A sustained and significant decline in the number of Covid-19 cases has been observed in lndia over the past 2 months, with the country reporting less than 1,000 daily new cases for the past few days. Further, weekly positivity rate has remained below 1 per cent," he said in the letter.

The letter sent to Principal Secretary (Health), Delhi, reads that that there has been an increase in the weekly new cases from 724 new cases in the week ending April 1, to 826 new cases till Friday, accounting to 11.33 per cent of India's new cases.

Bhushan has directed all these states to continue monitoring the clusters of new Covid-19 cases, perform adequate testing, undertake required steps in areas reporting high case positivity, and monitor influenza-like illness and SARI cases in all health facilities on a regular basis for detecting early warning signals of the spread of infection.

Also Read: 'Evidence doesn't suggest presence of new variant': Health Ministry sources on first Covid 'XE' case

The states have also been asked to follow the strategy of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to Covid appropriate behaviour, along with the vaccination of all eligible people.

(With agencies inputs) 

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