Six cases of a mutant Covid-19 strain, which first surfaced in the UK, have been detected in the country. The six patients have recently returned from the UK, where cases have spiralled within days.
The new strain is believed to be 70 per cent more infectious, but hardly more lethal.
Three of the patients are in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two in Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, Hyderabad and one in National Institute of Virology, Pune.
All six of the infected people had been kept in isolation, the health ministry said in a statement, adding that their fellow travellers were being traced. “Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine,” the ministry said.
India had suspended all flights from Britain until the end of the month over worry about the infectious variant of the virus but about 33,000 passengers arrived from the UK between 25 November and 23 December. Of them, 114 have tested positive for Covid. Genome sequencing for other specimens is on, the government has said. The states where these passengers arrived, meanwhile, are tracing them and their contacts for Covid RT-PCR tests.
Given the seriousness of the issue, India is likely to extend a flight ban. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the ban on flights from Britain would probably remain in force into the New Year. “I foresee a slight extension,” Puri told reporters. “I don’t expect that extension to be a long or indefinite extension.”
The UK strain surfaces at a time the spread of the infection—after hitting a peak in September—has slowed down. Over the last 24 hours, the country logged 16,432 cases–the lowest since 24 June, when 15,968 cases were recorded. The overall coronavirus figure is now 1,02,24,303, the highest after the US.
“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,” read a government statement announcing the UK strain.
The government had released details of the genomic surveillance consortium INSACOG, which has been formed to detect the presence of different strains of coronavirus in India. Ten labs across the country will be carrying out genome sequencing.
On 21 December, India banned flights from the UK and soon extended it to the Vande Bharat flights. The bar was to stay in place till December 31. Mumbai, the city hit worst by coronavirus, announced a night curfew.
WITH AGENCY INPUTS