Five cases of new Covid variant XBB found in state, no severity alarm yet

Maharashtra reported its first five cases of the new SARS-CoV-2 subvariant XBB on Thursday.

- Umesh Isalkar

In all, 71 XBB cases have been confirmed in West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra in the past fortnight. Odisha reported 33 cases, followed by West Bengal (17) and Tamil Nadu (16).

XBB essentially a combination of Omicron's BA.2.75 and BJ.1 was first picked up in Singapore and the US in August. Scientists believe the "recombinant" is good at immune evasion but it's still unclear if it causes severe disease leading to hospitalisation.