New Delhi: In view of the rising cases of the new mutant coronavirus strain in India, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday appealed to the government at the Centre to extend the travel ban to and fro from the United Kingdom till January 31. The chief minister reaction came after the Centre partially lifted the ban and resumed India to UK flights from January 6.
Urging to extend the flights ban, CM Kejriwal tweeted, “Centre has decided to lift the ban and start UK flights. In view of extremely serious COVID situation in UK, I would urge central govt to extend the ban till January 31.” He also questioned the Centre’s decision and wrote, “With great difficulty, people have brought COVID situation in control. UK’s COVID situation is very serious. Now, why lift ban and expose our people to risk?”
At present, the number of people who have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the country has climbed to 73. These cases include the 58 which were announced by the ministry till Tuesday.
All these people have been kept in single room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by respective state governments. Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on, the ministry said.
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.
Of the 73 cases, the mutated UK strain was detected in eight samples at National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, in 20 at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, in one at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani (near Kolkata), in 30 at the National Institute of Virology in Pune, in three at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad and 11 were sequenced at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Hospital (NIMHANS) Bengaluru.
The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by several countries including Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.
The government 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, it said.
This strategy includes temporary suspension of all flights coming from the UK with effect from the midnight of December 23 till January 7 and mandatory testing of all UK-returned air passengers through RT-PCR test.
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. INSACOG.
All the international passengers who have arrived in India between December 9 and 22, if symptomatic and tested positive for COVID-19 will be subjected to genome sequencing as part of the Centre’s strategy 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 ICMR guidelines (even if asymptomatic) between fifth and 10th day, according to the Union health ministry’s guidance document on genomic sequencing.
Epidemiological surveillance of the passengers, who have arrived in India since November 23 will be conducted in the community through active follow up.
Besides, standard operating protocol for states and union territories to tackle the mutant variant of SARS-CoV-2 was issued on December 22.