Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 29: India has so far detected six cases of the mutated Coronavirus strain that was first detected in the United Kingdom, the union health ministry confirmed on Tuesday. In Kerala, 18 people who returned from the UK have tested positive but it was not immediately known if they carried the new variant strain.
The central government, which had imposed a ban on all flights to and from UK, last week after the detection of the new variant, claimed to be 70 per cent faster in spreading the infection, till December 31, is considering to further extending the ban, the civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
The union health ministry on Tuesday said the six patients had recently returned from the UK. The mutated UK strain was detected in samples in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, in CCMB, Hyderabad and one in NIV, Pune.
“All these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated Health Care facilities by respective State Governments. 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 health ministry said.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the Kerala health minister KK Shailja said samples of the 18 persons had been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, for genomic analysis. The minister said the government had made arrangements for their quarantine at home.
Kerala has already strengthened surveillance at the state’s four international airports. A total of 743,563 cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in Kerala this year so far and 2,990 fatalities have been recorded due to the viral contagion.
Air India pilots have demanded the airline’s management provide them with details of the distinct phylogenetic cluster of Sars-CoV-2 that has been discovered in the UK. In a letter to its director of operations on Tuesday, the frontliners pointed out that Air India, from the beginning of the pandemic, has taken the lead on relief missions, ferrying essential cargo, and operating evacuation and repatriation flights across the globe. “Therefore, the pilots require all the information that can be provided to them regarding the new strain of the Sars-CoV-2 virus which causes coronavirus disease (Covid-19),” the letter said.
With the world expressing concern over the detection of the latest variant in the UK, Puri said on Tuesday, “I foresee a slight extension of the temporary suspension. I don’t expect that extension to be a long or indefinite extension. In the next day or two, we will find out if any additional steps need to be taken, or when we can start easing the current temporary suspension.” He said.
India like many other countries in the world, had suspended all flights from UK from December 22 midlight till December 31.
The Union health ministry said on Tuesday all international passengers who have arrived in India during the last 14 days – from December 9 to December 22 this year, if symptomatic and tested positive for the coronavirus disease will have to undergo genome sequencing.
“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 Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) Labs,” the health ministry added.
The ministry further added that about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK from November 25 to December 23. “So far only 114 have been found positive. These positive samples have been sent to 10 INSACOG labs (NIBMG Kolkata, ILS Bhubaneswar, NIV Pune, CCS Pune, CCMB Hyderabad, CDFD Hyderabad, InSTEM Bengaluru, NIMHANS Bengaluru, IGIB Delhi, NCDC Delhi) for genome sequencing,” the government said.
Till now the new UK Variant has already been reported by Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore, so far.
The health ministry said all international passengers who have arrived in India during last 14 days between 9th and 22nd December, if symptomatic and tested positive will be subjected to genome sequencing, in view of the new strain.
The Union Health Ministry said of the six detected with new UK strain three patients were in Bengaluru, two in Hyderabad and one in Pune. All the patients are in isolation in private single rooms at state government facilities.
“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 government said in a statement.
India reported 16,432 new Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours ending 8 am Tuesday, taking the country’s tally to 1,02,24,303. This is the lowest increase in daily cases in six months, since June 23. Of the total, only 2.68 lakh are active cases. Over 98 lakh have recovered from the disease. With 252 additional deaths reported on Monday, the death toll now stands at over 1.48 lakh.
“If we analyze COVID-19 cases on basis of gender, 63% of total cases were reported in males and 37% cases in females. Age-wise, 8% cases reported below the age of 17 years, 13% in 18-25 years age group, 39% in 26-44 years group, 26% in 45-60 years group & 14% above 60 years,” said Union Health Secretary.
About the Covid protocol being followed in India, the health ministry said the Centre took cognizance of the reports of mutant variant of SARS- CoV-2 virus reported from UK and put in place a pro-active and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant.
It said besides the existing steps, the entire issue was examined at length by NTF on December 26 and the NTF concluded that there was no need to change either the existing National Treatment Protocol or existing Testing Protocols in view of the mutant variant. NTF also recommended that in addition to the existing surveillance strategy, it was critical to conduct enhanced genomic surveillance.
“The situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the States for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing & dispatch of samples to INSACOG labs,” the health ministry said.