The Karnataka government on Tuesday, 12 April, announced that the state is mulling imposing of quarantine rules for foreign travellers, in light of the new XE variant of COVID-19.
Which countries will this apply to? What are the proposed rules? Here's all you need to know.
When will this come into force?
The Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar has said that the guidelines will be announced soon.
Which countries will this apply to?
China
Hong Kong
UK
Germany
South Korea
All these countries are witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases.
What are the proposed rules?
Apart from thermal screening, the COVID Committee in Karnataka has suggested quarantine for 7-10 days.
Which states have XE cases in India?
The Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation had on Wednesday, 6 April, indicated that the city had detected its first case of Omicron's new sub-variant, XE. However, the Union Health Ministry soon issued a clarification, saying that the "present evidence does not suggest the presence of the new variant".
On 9 April, health officials in Gujarat had said that the state had detected the first case of the XE variant after a man who belonged to Mumbai tested COVID-19 positive in Vadodara.
Should we be worried about XE?
The World Health Organization stated on 6 April that the recombinant COVID XE variant is a particular cause for concern because it has a higher transmissibility rate than BA.2 Omicron.
"The XE recombinant (BA.1-BA.2) is being tracked as part of the Omicron variant. This recombinant was first detected in the United Kingdom on 19 January and a few hundred sequences have been reported and confirmed since," the WHO had said.
But it added that "early estimates based on limited preliminary data suggest that XE has a community growth rate advantage of about 10 percent as compared to BA.2, however this finding requires further confirmation."
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