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."
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)