One confirmed case of the XE COVID variant has been detected in India, according to the latest bulletin of the Indian SARS-CoV2 Genomics Sequencing Consortium (INSACOG).

However, the location of this variant was not identified in the bulletin for April 25 released on May 3. "As compared to the previous week, 12 states have shown an increase in cases, while 19 states have shown a decline," said the bulletin said. It said that suspected recombinant sequences are under further analysis.

"BA.2.10 and BA.2.12 are BA.2 sub-lineages that have been detected and many old BA.2 sequences have been reclassified into these new sub-lineages. So far these sub-lineages are not reported to be associated with increased severity of disease," the bulletin said, adding that so far there are no reports of XE clusters across India.

Also in an April 18 bulletin, the INSACOG had mentioned one XE variant case in the country. The INSACOG reports genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 across the country through sequencing of samples from Sentinel sites and International passengers arriving in India. As per the latest bulletin, INSACOG has sequenced total 2,43,957 samples.