Covid 4th wave: Signs, symptoms, impact of the new Omicron XE variant

Even as many countries battle the Covid 4th wave, a fresh scare of a new wave of infections has left people worried in India as the new XE variant cases surfaces in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Mumbai is the first city to report a case of Omicron XE variant.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is currently tracking the XE mutation as part of the Omicron variant. Its symptoms can include fever, sore throat, scratchy throat, cough and cold, skin irritation and discoloration, gastrointestinal distress, and a dry cough.

XE is combination of two most prevalent Omicron variants, BA.1 and BA.2, which makes it even more infectious than Omicron. This means that the variant will spread faster than previous Omicron strains and infect more people than before.

Read | Covid 4th wave: After XE variant detected in India, NTAGI chief says ‘nothing to panic about’

Experts, however, believe that since its discovery in the UK early this year, XE appears to be mild. Though they have warned against letting the guard down and advise people to continue following Covid-appropriate behaviour.

What is XE variant?

The XE was first detected in the United Kingdom in January 2022 as a new variant of Covid-19 and has been confirmed in more than 600 cases since then. The WHO considers it ten times more contagious than the BA.2 variant. India's Covid-19 XE variant has recently been updated.

WHO says that the XE mutation is currently being tracked as part of the Omicron variant. Omicron symptoms include fever, sore throat, scratchy throat, cough and cold, skin irritation and discoloration and gastrointestinal distress.

XE variant is known to be 10% more transmissible and has a higher community transmission advantage of 1.1 as compared to the original virus. But there is no evidence XE is any more serious in disease severity. All Omicron variants have so far been seen to be less severe.

XE is a 'recombinant' mutant of BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron strains. Recombinant mutations emerge when a patient is infected by multiple variants of Covid. The variants mix up their genetic material during replication and form a new mutant, UK experts have said in a paper published in British Medical Journal.

What is Recombinant mutation?

A recombinant is where related viruses exchange genetic material to create offspring with genetic material from both parent viruses. This can arise when viruses of two different strains (or variants or subvariants) co-infect the same cell.

The genetic material of the viruses can get mixed and packaged together to make a new recombinant virus, with properties of either or both parent viruses. The properties of the recombinant virus therefore depend on which parts of the genetic material from the parent viruses make it into the new version.

When Delta and Omicron recombine, the resulting progeny have been referred to as 'Deltacron' (although more officially these are referred to as XD and XF). This type of recombinant was first identified in France in mid-February and seems to have a genetic sequence mostly the same as Delta, but with aspects of the spike protein from Omicron BA.1.

Symptoms of XE variant

So far, the symptoms reported remains that of the Omicron such as fatigue, lethargy, fever, headache, body pain, palpitations and heart issues.

It is common for such a condition to cause early symptoms like fever, sore throat, cough, mucus and cold, and stomach problems. 

There is no evidence so far to say that the symptoms of XE variant are different from the already existing variants.