Tag : Facemask

New Delhi: Voluntary use of masks must be promoted in the country in view of Covid-19's new XE variant, healthcare experts said, calling it the single-most effective intervention against all variants of the coronavirus. After more than two years, mandatory wearing of masks was lifted in Maharashtra and Delhi. Wearing masks was mandatory in public in view of the Covid-19 infection and not following this protocol drew a fine as high as Rs 2,000. The World Health Organisation has issued a warning against XE, a new variant of Omicron first detected in the UK, and suggested that it could be more transmissible than any Covid-19 strain so far. The XE variant is a combination or recombinant of both sub-variants -- BA.1 and BA.2 -- of Omicron. Asked about the new variant's impact on India, which is witnessing a dip in cases ever since the Omicron driven wave started receding in February, the experts said that there is no need to panic but advocated for voluntary use of masks in public. Gujarat reported its first case of the XE variant on Saturday after authorities got the genome sequencing results of the sample taken from a man from Mumbai, who had tested positive for Covid-19 during his visit to Vadodara on March 12, a state official said. Earlier, Mumbai civic body officials had said that a woman who had arrived from South Africa in February-end and tested positive in March has been infected by the XE variant, but the health ministry has not confirmed it to be so. Eminent virologist T Jacob John said XE means there were XA, XB, XC and XD earlier but none of them was given much attention. "XE gained attention since it became common in the UK. It had about 10 per cent higher transmissibility than the BA.2 lineage of Omicron. Many media-pe ...