NEW DELHI: Health Minister Satyendar Jain addressed a press conference on Monday on the new XE variant that has been found in Gujarat and said there is no need to panic about this variant of Omicron. He also stated there is no need to focus on the infection rate at the moment as the number of hospital admissions is declining.
“The XE variant is yet to be classified as a variant of concern. New variants are being discovered around the world, and many more will emerge as time passes. We have to understand that unless a variant is deemed as a ‘variant of concern’ by WHO, we need not be worried about it. However, we still need to keep our guards up and follow the rules pertaining to the pandemic.”
Experts have also stated that the Omicron-XE variant of Covid-19, the most virulent to date, is not behaving like a significant threat and should not be a worry. According to India’s top virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang, variants will keep coming. “Don’t worry about XE. Why are we getting obsessed with it? Variants will keep coming. This (XE) is not behaving like a significant threat. So calm down,” said the professor of microbiology.
Meanwhile, Jain said the government has taken necessary precautions to tackle any rise in cases. “The XE variant is yet to be classified as a variant of concern. New variants of the virus are being discovered around the world almost every other day, and many more will emerge as time passes. We have to understand that unless a variant is deemed as a ‘variant of concern’ by the WHO, we need not be worried about it. However, we still need to keep our guards up and follow the rules pertaining to the pandemic,” said Jain during a press conference.
He said that the Delhi Government has taken all necessary precautions beforehand to tackle any rise in cases. He added that the Delhi situation is closely monitored. “There is no need to focus on the infection rate at the moment, as the number of hospital admissions is decreasing day by day and the total daily cases is between 100 to 200,” he added.