COVID Positive International Passengers To Undergo Genome Sequencing

New Delhi: All international passengers who have arrived in India between December 9 and 22 and were symptomatic and tested positive for coronavirus will be subjected to genome sequencing for the new strain, mutant variant of SARS-COV2, which is said to be 70 per cent more infectious than the existing one.

The Government also stated that one in every 20 international passengers will be tested for new variants of Covid-19. So far, the United Kingdom and South Africa have reported two separate new strains of COVID-19, pressing the panic button across the globe.

The Centre decided on this after six people tested positive for the super-infectious UK strain of the virus today.  The rest will be followed up by the states and their local administration.

The decision was taken after it became clear that the mutant virus has spread beyond UK.

Also Read: 6-uk-returnees-test-positive-for-new-corona-strain/

While India has temporarily banned flights from the UK from December 21, the UK strain of virus has reached Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.

“It is easy to suppress the virus in the starting. Once the transmission is too widespread, it is hard to control,” said Dr VK Paul, a member of Niti Aayog, at the Health Ministry media briefing on Tuesday evening.

Health Secretary R Bhushan said the Government has formed a consortium of Indian genomics. Ten government labs have been designated to test the new strains of the Covid-19 virus. These labs have already been conducting genome sequencing to identify various strains of the virus.

These labs, the heath secretary said, had already conducted over 5,000 genome sequencing before the announcement of the UK variant of the virus.

While doctors say there is no evidence that the new strain leads to more fatalities or cannot be controlled by existing vaccines, its super-spreader nature is likely to put more people at risk, especially the vulnerable section of the population.

Also Read: No-need-to-panic-about-mutated-covid-19-strain-odisha-govt/