A health worker, wearing protective gear, collects swab samples for COVD-19 test at East Delhi in New Delhi, Monday, Dec 21. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)Coronavirus India Live Updates: In a routine press briefing, Niti Aayog’s Dr VK Paul said there was no cause for concern for now over the new strain of coronavirus found in the UK. “The new strain of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom has increased transmissibility. This mutation is not affecting the severity of the disease. Case fatality is not affected by this mutation,” he said.
The Health Ministry also issued Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for passengers who have travelled from or transited through the UK in the past four weeks. Compulsory RT-PCR tests on arrival, separate isolation of those testing positive for the new variant of coronavirus and institutional quarantine for co-passengers of those testing positive are some of the requirements mentioned by the Centre to the states.
Three people arriving in India from Britain tested positive for coronavirus, a government official said on Tuesday, but it wasn’t clear if they had a highly infectious strain of the virus, reported Reuters. Meanwhile, India on Tuesday recorded 19,556 new Covid-19 cases, the lowest in six months, according to data from the Union Health Ministry. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stand at 1,00,75,116. Out of these 2.92 lakh are active while over 96.36 lakh people have recovered from the disease. With 301 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the death toll reached 1,46,111.
Detection of new cases of coronavirus infections fell below 20,000 for the first time in six months. Low detection was, however, powered by a drop in testing on Sunday. Only six states reported more than 1,000 new cases on Monday.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation stated Monday that the government has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India shall be temporarily suspended till 11:59 pm, 31st December. “This suspension to start w.e.f. 11.59 pm, 22nd December. Consequently, flights from India to UK shall stand temporarily suspended during above said period,” it said.
A health worker collects swab sample for COVD-19 test at M Block CP in New Delhi, Wednesday, Dec. 16. (Express File Photo by Amit Mehra)
The head of Germany's disease control center says it will probably be several weeks before infections in the country, which is nearly a week into a toughened lockdown, start to decline.
Germany has seen new coronavirus cases and deaths related to COVID-19 hit record highs over recent weeks, despite a partial shutdown in place since early November. Last Wednesday, nonessential shops and schools were closed in a bid to reverse the trend.
Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute disease control center, said Tuesday that he fears the Christmas period is making the situation worse, despite restrictions on the number of people allowed to gather. He appealed to people not to travel, to minimize contacts beyond their closest family and where possible meet others outdoors. (AP)
Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has said all passengers arriving from the Middle East and European countries will be subjected to mandatory institutional quarantine from Tuesday. The new rules for the passengers travelling via the Mumbai airport, including those having connected flights, are in line with the directives issued by the state and central governments on Monday, the airport operator said in a release.
The central government on Monday said all the UK-India flights will be suspended from December 23 to December 31 in view of the emergence of a new coronavirus strain in that country. It also said all passengers coming from the UK on Monday and Tuesday would be compulsorily tested for coronavirus on arrival at airports.
Separately, the Maharashtra government in a circular on Monday said it has decided to conduct institutional quarantine for all passengers from all over Europe and the Middle East for 14 days after landing at the airport, as well as home quarantine for passengers from other countries. (PTI)
In a routine press briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, Niti Aayog’s Dr V K Paul Tuesday said that the new strain of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom has increased transmissibility. However, he added that the new mutation of coronavirus has not been seen in India, so far. “This mutation is not affecting the severity of the disease. Case fatality is not affected by this mutation,” Paul added.
57% of the cases in the last 24 hours were reported from MP, Tamil Nadu, Chhatisgarh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Kerala. 61% of deaths in the last 24 hours were reported from UP, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Kerala, West Bengal and Maharashtra, said Health Ministry.
In today's presser, Niti Aayog's Dr VK Paul said that the new strain of COVID19 in the United Kingdom has increased transmissibility. "This mutation is not affecting the severity of the disease. Case fatality is not affected by this mutation," he added.
The chief executive of BioNTech says the German pharmaceutical company is confident that its coronavirus vaccine works against the UK variant, but further studies are need to be completely sure. Ugur Sahin said Tuesday that we don't know at the moment if our vaccine is also able to provide protection against this new variant, but because the proteins on the variant are 99% the same as the prevailing strains, BioNTech has scientific confidence in the vaccine.
Sahin said BioNTech is currently conducting further studies and hopes to have certainty within the coming weeks. "The likelihood that our vaccine works ... is relatively high," he said. BioNTech's vaccine, developed together with U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer, is authorised for use in more than 45 countries including Britain, the United States and the European Union. (AP)
Amid mounting concern over a new strain of COVID-19 detected in the UK, the Delhi government on Tuesday said it will check the health condition of passengers, who have arrived here recently from the UK, by visiting their houses. All passengers arriving from the UK are now being tested for COVID-19 at Delhi airport, Health Minister Satyendar Jain told reporters.
"The Delhi government is on alert in the wake of a mutated coronavirus strain detected in the UK. The situation is being closely monitored and mandatory tests are being conducted at the Delhi airport for all passengers arriving from that country," he said.
The ministry said SOPs are now required to be followed at all entry points into the country and within the community with regard to air passengers who have travelled from or transited through the UK in the past four weeks starting from November 25 to December 23.
“This variant is estimated by the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) to be more transmissible and affecting younger population. This variant is defined by a set of 17 changes or mutations. One of the most significant is an N501Y mutation in the spike protein that the virus uses to bind to the human ACE2 receptor. Changes in this part of the spike protein may result in the virus becoming more infectious and spreading more easily between people,” the ministry said in a document released today.
The Health Ministry Tuesday issued Standard Operating Procedure for Epidemiological Surveillance and Response in the context of the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus detected in the United Kingdom.
India's COVID-19 active caseload has fallen below 3 lakh, the lowest in 163 days and comprises just 2.90 per cent of the total infections, the Union Health Ministry said. The total active cases stand at 2,92,518. On July 12, the active cases had last settled below three lakh at 2,92,258.
Less than 20,000 daily new cases (19,556) were added to the national tally in a day after 173 days. A net decline of 11,121 cases has been recorded in the total active cases in a span of 24 hours. The share of active caseload in the total cases has further shrunk below 3 per cent to 2.90 per cent, the ministry highlighted.
'India has achieved a new low in daily cases. Less than 20,000 daily new cases (19,556) were added to the national tally in a day after 173 days. The new added cases were 19,148 on July 2,' the ministry said. (PTI)
Three people arriving in India from Britain tested positive for coronavirus, a government official said on Tuesday, but it wasn't clear if they had a highly infectious strain of the virus, reported Reuters.
Three of the 266 passengers and and crew who arrived in New Delhi on a flight from Britain late on Monday had tested positive forthe coronavirus, said government official Awanish Kumar, who is helping coordinate testing at New Delhi airport.
"It is unclear ... National Centre for Disease Control will confirm this," Kumar said in a text message.
Two passengers who arrived in Kolkata from the United Kingdon (UK) tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday.
Sources said they have been kept in isolation at a Kolkata hospital. According to reports, around 25 people were tested on arrival, out of which two tested positive.
As per sources, a total of 342 passengers were tested for coronavirus on arrival at the Kolkata Airport since October 22. So far, six of them have tested positive.
With a new Covid-19 strain being detected in the United Kingdom, the Delhi government will test all passengers coming to Delhi from the country from Tuesday. While the Ministry of Civil Aviation has suspended all flights connecting India to the UK till December 31, there are three flights scheduled to reach Delhi on Tuesday.
According to Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, the government will also contact all those who arrived from the UK in the past two weeks.
The World Health Organization cautioned against major alarm over a new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain, saying this was a normal part of a pandemic’s evolution.
WHO officials even put a positive light on the discovery of the new strains that prompted a slew of alarmed countries to impose travel restrictions on Britain and South Africa, saying new tools to track the virus were working.
A passenger who landed in Chennai from the UK via Delhi tested positive for Covid-19. His samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune to ascertain if he is infected with the new virus strain circulating in UK. As many as 1,088 passengers who have arrived in Chennai from UK in the last 10 days are being monitored.
On Monday India suspended all flights from and to the UK until December 31, amid concerns about a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 that is “spreading & growing rapidly” there. Several other countries, too, have suspended UK flights and imposed travel restrictions.
Last week, the new SARS-CoV-2 variant was revealed to be the reason behind the rapid surge in Covid-19 cases in South and East England. It is being referred to as VUI (Variant Under Investigation) 202012/01, or the B.1.1.7 lineage.
“Over the last few days, thanks to our world-class genomic capability, we have identified a new variant of the coronavirus, which may be associated with the faster spread in the South of England,” UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of commons on December 14. UK authorities have already notified the World Health Organization about the variant. Read on to find out more
The move to temporarily suspend passenger flight links with the United Kingdom is, as the Union Health Secretary said, in the direction of “enhanced epidemiological surveillance and containment”.
The latest threat assessment brief from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control underlines that “viruses constantly change through mutation and the emergence of a new variant is an expected occurrence, and not in itself a cause for concern”.
Around 1,100 healthcare workers and district officials across Delhi have been trained so far under the extensive training programme for 3,500 healthcare workers who will be administering Covid vaccine shots once they are made available in the city.
On Monday, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan said India may begin vaccinating people against Covid-19 in January and the government’s first priority has been safety and efficacy of the vaccine