Experts feel XE hybrid recombinant strain of Sars-Cov-2 unlikely to impact people in Telangana

Hyderabad, April 12, 2022:

Health experts from Telangana observed that the newly found XE variant of Sars-Cov-2 strain which was recently detected in Mumbai is unlikely to impact the people of Telangana.  

According to experts from Center for cellular and Molecular biology (CCMB) and leading professors from Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H) who are tracking various new Covid variants strains, the hybrid recombinant strains of SS-Cov-2 including XE, XD, and XF are unlikely to create much impact in Telangana state.

“All those variants of Covid strains which are coming after the highly severe Delta and Omicron are not showing much impact or severity of the disease. As already more than 95 per cent of population in Telangana has got natural immunity due to Delta and Omicron strains, and those remaining left over have already got immunity due to the double vaccination, the variants that may come has the least possibility of causing severe disease and therefore there is no reason to be worried that the newly reported XE variant will impact the people of Telangana,” observed Dr M Vidyasagar, Professor of IIT Hyderabad, who is also a member who developed SUTRA Mathematic al model of Pandemic projections in India.

The IIT-H expert revealed that the XE is a hybrid lineage of BA.1 and Ba.2 variants that were sequenced and verified by UK health security agency UKHSA. The variant has the spike and structural proteins from BA.2 variant but the remaining part of its genome is derived from BA.1.

Though expert observed that the XE variant is far more transmissible than BA.1and BA.2 experts here point out that the Indian population has already developed a significant natural immunity from both the Omicron variants of BA.1 and BA.2 during the third Covid wave between December 2021 and January 2022.

In fact, the third wave of Covid in Telangana was driven by Omicron variant and more than 70 per cent infections observed during the third wave was due to Omicron variant of BA-2 and the remaining infections were caused BA.1 variant of Covid viruses

The experts also pointed out that the immunity profile of Indians against Covid is different from people in china, other Asian countries and Europe. In these countries the BA.2 variant is still active. “More than vaccine induced immunity, the present data had shown that natural immunity is far more effective in containing Omicron variant.

China and several other western and European countries adopted the zero-Covid policy through massive lockdowns, because of which the people in these regions are not having natural immunity compared to those with that of the Indian population. Pharmabiz