INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
New Delhi: Twenty people who returned to India from the United Kingdom have tested positive for the new UK variant genome of SARS-CoV-2 so
far, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.The tally includes six people who were found positive for the new virus strain on
National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani (near Kolkata), one at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune, seven at
Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad and one at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi.The ministry on Tuesday said six UK
returnees were found positive for the mutated UK variant genome and that all these people have been kept in single room isolation at
designated health care facilities by respective state governments and their close contacts have also been put under
Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on."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," the ministry had said.The presence of the new UK
Variant has already been reported by Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan,
Indian airports from the UK
All these passengers are being tracked and subjected to RT-PCR tests by states and Union Territories.The Government of India took cognizance
of the reports of virus reported from the UK and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant,
The samples of all UK returnees found positive in RT-PCR test will be genome sequenced by a consortium of 10 government labs i.e
surveillance and containment strategy.Besides, standard operating protocol for states and UTs to tackle the mutant variant of SARS-CoV-2 was
that in addition to the existing surveillance strategy, it is critical to conduct enhanced genomic surveillance, the ministry had said.
