This method consists of short-term suspension of all flights coming from the UK with impact from the midnight of December 23 till January 7 and mandatory testing of all UK-returned air passengers by means of RT-PCR test. The samples of all UK returnees identified positive in RT-PCR test will be genome sequenced by a consortium of 10 government labs i.e. INSACOG. Further, all the international passengers who have arrived in India involving December 9 and 22, if symptomatic and tested positive for COVID-19 will be subjected to genome sequencing as element of the Centre’s method to detect the mutated UK variant in them.
Others will be followed up by the respective state and district surveillance officers and will be tested as per the ICMR suggestions (even if asymptomatic) involving 5th and 10th day, according to the Union Health Ministry’s guidance document on genomic sequencing.
Further, epidemiological surveillance of the passengers, who have arrived in India because November 23 will be performed in the neighborhood by means of active adhere to up. Besides, normal operating protocol for states and UTs to tackle the mutant variant of SARS-CoV-2 was issued on December 22.