Amid mounting concerns over the new 'XE' variant of Covid-19 and a day after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation reported its first case in Mumbai, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday said the state health department has not received any confirmation about the variant and thus cannot confirm it.

"As per information, XE variant is only 10 per cent more infectious than the Omicron variant. We will talk more about it in detail after getting a report. Since we have not received a confirmatory report from the Centre or NIB, Maharashtra health department does not confirm it," Tope told ANI.