The Centre has confirmed that with 13 more individuals testing positive for the new UK strain of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the total number of UK returnees having tested positive for the country’s mutant virus has reached 71.
The findings are focused on the genome sequencing of positive samples published by laboratories of the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) explicitly established by the Centre for the purpose of monitoring any kind of virus mutations.
“As of now, 71 positive cases of the new UK variant have been identified from various designated laboratories across the country,” Dr. Renu Swarup, Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, said in a media briefing on Tuesday.
In order to minimize the spread of infection that is considered to be at least 70 percent more contagious than the initial virus, the government has asked states to rapidly monitor contact tracing of these positive cases and isolate and examine symptomatic contacts.
In six of the 10 designated laboratories across the nation, the samples have so far been sequenced.
NIMHANS, Bengaluru, CCMB, Hyderabad, NIV, Pune, IGIB, Delhi, NCDC, New Delhi, and NCBG, Kolkata is among the INSACOG network of laboratories that have returned positive samples for new variants after genome sequencing.
Among the samples that have been sequenced in their laboratories, NCBS, InSTEM, Bengaluru, CDFD Hyderabad, ILS Bhubaneswar, and NCCS Pune have so far found no UK mutant virus.
From 25 November to 23 December 2020, at midnight, approximately 33,000 passengers disembarked from the UK at various Indian airports. To detect Covid-19, all these passengers are tracked and subjected to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests by states.
All these individuals were held in single-room isolation by the respective state governments in designated health care facilities. Their close contacts were placed under quarantine as well. For co-travelers, family contacts, and others, extensive contact tracing has been started. According to the Ministry of Health, genome sequencing on other specimens is going on.
The situation is under close control and the states are given daily advice for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing, and dispatch of samples to INSACOG laboratories,” the health ministry said in a statement.”
After a new version of Sar-CoV-2 was found to be circulating in London and other parts of the world, the Indian government suspended air travel from the United Kingdom on December 23rd.
The new strain is thought to be 70 percent more transmissible, increasing questions about super-spreading events, and has 23 mutations, including one on the receptor-binding protein on the spike used by the virus to enter human cells.
However, because of the latest version, doctors monitoring these patients have not noticed serious illness among these patients.
Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon, and Singapore have already announced the existence of the latest UK version so far.
