Covid new strain in India: As a lot of as 20 returnees from the United Kingdom (UK) so far have discovered to be carrying the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes Coronavirus, according to ANI report. The new strain of Covid-19 which has traced in the UK has termed as more contagious. Flights among London and other components of the UK and a number of cities of India have been temporarily suspended.
The mutated UK strain was detected in eight samples at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), 1 at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani (close to Kolkata), 1 at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune, seven at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences Hospital (NIMHANS) Bengaluru, two at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad and 1 at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, PTI quoted the Union Health Ministry as saying.
“The major population is still susceptible to COVID-19 infection in this 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. One can’t be careless,”
-Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog mentioned yesterday.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has mentioned that prior to the news of the UK variant came in, authorities had accomplished roughly 5,000 genome sequences across labs. “Now we’ll be significantly increasing that number and would be working in a coordinated manner,” Bhushan mentioned.
Meanwhile, Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) labs are releasing benefits of Genome sequencing of a mutant variant of Covid-19. From November 25 to December 23, 2020 midnight, about 33,000 passengers had been tested at numerous Indian airports from the UK. So far only 114 have been discovered positive for common SARS-CoV-2. These positive samples had been sent to 10 INSACOG labs NIBMG Kolkata, ILS Bhubaneswar, NIV Pune, CCS Pune, CCMB Hyderabad, CDFD Hyderabad, InSTEM Bengaluru, NIMHANS Bengaluru, IGIB Delhi, and NCDC Delhi for genome sequencing to ascertain regardless of whether they had been carrying the new Covid strain or not, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare mentioned in a statement.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare mentioned that a total of 6 samples of the six UK returnee persons have been discovered to be positive with the new UK variant genome. Three are in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two in CCMB, Hyderabad and 1 in NIV, Pune. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare mentioned that the scenario is beneath cautious watch and common guidance is getting offered to the States for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing and dispatch of samples to INSACOG labs. The Government of India has formed the National Task Force (NTF) to overview the scenario.
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So far, Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore have reported possessing Covid new strain situations.