A total of 20 persons in India have been found with the mutant variant of SARS- CoV-2 virus reported from the United Kingdom.
All international passengers who arrived in India from December 9 to December 22, if found symptomatic and tested positive, will be subjected to genome sequencing in a bid to find if they have the new UK coronavirus strain.
Others will be followed up by the respective states and district surveillance officers and tested as per ICMR guidelines, even if asymptomatic, between 5th and 10th day, according to the Union Health Ministry's guidance document on genomic sequencing.
"All the international passengers who have arrived in India during last 14 days (from 9th December to 22nd December 2020), if symptomatic and tested positive will be subjected to genome sequencing," it stated.
Besides this, ten regional labs have been identified by the Centre where states and Union Territories will send 5% of their Covid-19 positive samples for genome sequencing to detect the new coronavirus variant.
These include NIBMG Kolkata, ILS Bhubaneswar, NIV Pune, CCS Pune, CCMB Hyderabad, CDFD Hyderabad, InSTEM Bengaluru, NIMHANS Bengaluru, IGIB Delhi, NCDC Delhi. 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 the INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium) labs.
A total of 20 persons in India have been found with the mutant variant of SARS- CoV-2 virus reported from the United Kingdom, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
These include the six persons reported earlier -- three in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two in CCMB, Hyderabad and one in NIV, Pune.
The UK government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70% more transmissible.
The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.
Pursuant to the announcement by the British government, India had taken cognizance of the reports of mutant variant and put in place a pro-active and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant.
Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday that passenger flights between the UK and India would remain suspended till January 7 and they will resume in a "strictly regulated" manner thereafter. The Civil Aviation Ministry had last week suspended all flights between the European country and India from December 23 to December 31 as a mutated variant of the coronavirus was detected there.
From November 25 to December 23 midnight, about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK. All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by states and UTs to RT-PCR tests.
(With agency inputs)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "International passengers")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}