Six cases of UK variant of coronavirus, which is believed to be more hazardous that the first one, has been detected in India, the government said on Tuesday.
All the positive six cases have returned from UK out of which three of the patients are in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two in CCMB, Hyderabad and one in NIV, Pune.
As per the reports, all the patients have been kept in single room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by the state governments.
The authorities told that their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others.
As per the latest development, the Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on.
A genomic surveillance consortium called INSACOG has been formed under the leadership of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for laboratory and epidemiological surveillance of circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2 in the country, the government said.
It is proposed to continue enhanced genomic surveillance for early detection and containment of the UK variant SARS-CoV-2 strains. However, it is important to understand that like all other RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 will continue to mutate. The mutated virus can also be contained by measures like social distancing, hand hygiene, wearing masks and also by an effective vaccine, as and when available.
NTF recommended that in addition to the existing surveillance strategies, it is critical to conduct enhanced genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 specially in incoming passengers from UK. Besides, it will also be critical to conduct genome sequencing in samples where there is dropout of the S gene in lab diagnosis, proven cases of re-infections etc. Routine genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 from representative samples all across the samples needs to be a continuous and well planned activity.
The Ministry of Health has issued new standard operating procedure (SOP) due to new strain of coronavirus detected which includes RT-PCR testing on arrival, separate isolation for those testing positive, institutional quarantine for co-passengers for those who tested positive for travellers arriving from the United Kingdom.
The new SOPs have been issued as a new mutant variant of the coronavirus was detected and the Ministry of Health said that the virus is estimated by the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) to be more transmissible and affecting the younger population.