Six UK returnees test +ve for new virus strain

Cases found in Hyderabad, Pune Bengaluru; aviation ban extension likely, says govt

NEW DELHI: The new UK variant genome of Sars-Cov-2 virus has made its way into India, with six UK returnees testing positive for the new variant, according to the initial results of genome sequencing of positive samples released by the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (Insacog) labs on Tuesday.

“A total of six samples of six UK returnee persons have been found to be positive with the new UK variant genome. 3 in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, 2 in CCMB, Hyderabad and 1 in NIV, Pune,” said union ministry of health and family welfare in a statement.

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 quarantined.

Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other samples is currently going on.

India is likely to extend the suspension of passenger flights to and from the United Kingdom to check the spread of the new strain of coronavirus, aviation

minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.

The ministry had last week suspended all flights between the two countries from December 23 to December 31 over the mutated variant.

“I foresee a slight extension of temporary suspension of India-UK flights,” the minister told a press conference.

“In a 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.

From November 25 to midnight, December 23, 2020, about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK.

“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 Insacog labs,” a health ministry statement said.

The government on Tuesday rushed to allay fears in the wake of the new variants, insisting that Covid-19 vaccines will work against them and there is no evidence that current vaccines will fail to protect against the SARSCoV-2 mutants reported from the UK or South Africa.

Addressing a press conference, principal scientific advisor K Vijay Raghavan said so far it has not been found that the new variant increases the severity of the disease. “There is no evidence that current vaccines will fail to protect against COVID 19 variants reported from UK or SA. Most vaccines do target the Spike protein, in which there are changes in the variants but vaccines stimulate our immune system to produce a wide range of protective antibodies,” he said.

NITI Aayog member (health) Dr VK Paul said there has been a consistent decline in the number of new Covid-19 cases and deaths which is reassuring given the current scenario across the world. “We are consistently showing a decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases, active cases and deaths, which is very reassuring. It stands out particularly during this very period when several nations are facing a devastating situation.”

He said majority of the population is still susceptible to the infection in the cold weather. “The UK variant has travelled to several other countries and also to India, this variant may have its own run and we have to very careful,” Paul said.

Standard defense mechanisms such as masks, sanitisation and physical distancing will work to contain the new strain, scientists said on Tuesday.

Anurag Agrawal, director of New Delhi’s CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), told, “Staying cautious and following good practices should be sufficient (to tackle the variant).” The UK, where the variant was identified first, has not reported any clinical indication of the variant being more severe, he added.

Virologist Upasana Ray agreed with the assessment that there is no cause for alarm because there is nothing so far to back concerns that the variant is more deadly. The senior scientist at CSIR-IICB, Kolkata, went a step further and said, “It has been said the transmission rate is more. However, for that also there is no laboratory based evidence.”

The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore, so far.