Twenty people who returned to India from the United Kingdom
have tested positive for the new variant genome of SARS-CoV-2 so far, the Union
health ministry said on Wednesday.
The tally includes six
people who were found positive for the new virus strain on Tuesday.
The ministry said the mutated UK strain was
detected in eight samples at the National Centre for Disease Control, one at
the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani (near Kolkata), one at
the National Institute of Virology Pune, seven at the National Institute of
Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences Hospital Bengaluru, two at the Centre for
Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad and one at the Institute of
Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi.
The ministry on Tuesday said six UK returnees were found positive for
the mutated UK variant genome and that all these people have been kept in
single room isolation at designated health care facilities by respective state
governments and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine.
"Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for
co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens
is going on.
“The situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being
provided to the states for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing and
dispatch of samples to INSACOG labs," the ministry had said.
The presence of the new UK Variant has already been reported by Denmark,
Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany,
Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.
The ministry said that from November 25 to December 23 midnight, about
33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK. All these
passengers are being tracked and subjected to RT-PCR tests by states and Union
Territories.
The Government of India took cognisance of the reports of virus reported
from the UK and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and
contain the mutant variant, it said.
This strategy includes temporary suspension of all flights coming from
the UK with effect from the midnight of December 23 till December 31 and
mandatory testing of all UK-returned air passengers through RT-PCR test. The
samples of all UK returnees found positive in RT-PCR test will be genome
sequenced by a consortium of 10 government labs i.e. INSACOG.
Also, a meeting of the National Task Force on COVID-19 was held on
December 26 to consider and recommend testing, treatment, surveillance and
containment strategy.
Besides, standard operating protocol for states and UTs to tackle the
mutant variant of SARS-CoV-2 was issued on December 22.
The entire issue was examined at length by the NTF on December 26 and
the NTF concluded that there is no need to change either the existing National
Treatment Protocol or existing testing protocols in view of the mutant variant.
The NTF also recommended that in addition to the existing surveillance
strategy, it is critical to conduct enhanced genomic surveillance, the ministry
had said.