Jain: Covid situation under control, XE variant not a cause for concern

The variant has not been detected in Delhi so far, according to people familiar with the matter.

Noting that the Delhi government is keeping a close watch on the Covid situation in the Capital, health minister Satyendar Jain on Monday urged people to not panic amid reports of a new XE variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, that causes Covid-19, pointing out that it has not been classified as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain  (File Photo / ANI)

The variant has not been detected in Delhi so far, according to people familiar with the matter.

“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 worry about it. However, we still need to keep our guards up and follow the rules pertaining to the pandemic,” said Jain, addressing the media on Monday.

“We are closely monitoring the Covid situation in Delhi. 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 are between 100 and 200. Only around 49 people were admitted into hospitals, which is a significant fall in numbers from around 150 people being admitted a month ago. We have to understand that Covid is here to stay and we have to learn to live with it and make changes to our policies accordingly,” he added.

Since April 4, the Covid positivity rate in Delhi has remained above the 1% mark.

On Friday, the Union health ministry also wrote to five state governments, including Delhi, directing them to keep a close watch on the rising Covid cases. On Monday, the city reported 137 new infections and the case positivity rate settled at 2.70%.