India recorded 22,273 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours.
New Delhi:
The national working group on COVID-19 held a meeting on Saturday on the new mutant strain of the coronavirus that was first tracked in the UK and discussed surveillance strategies to detect and contain the highly contagious infection.
More than 50 samples from people who have returned from the UK are currently being sequenced in six labs across the country to find out if they have the mutant strain and district surveillance officers are identifying passengers who have arrived from the country in the last month. officials said.
The task force also agreed on the need for routine genomic surveillance to track different strains of the coronavirus and decided to ensure that, apart from returnees from the UK, samples from 5 percent of positive cases are sent from all states and territories. of junction for genome sequencing. .
A genomic surveillance consortium called INSACOG was formed under the leadership of the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) for epidemiological and laboratory surveillance of circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2 in the country, the government said.
The statement read: “It is important to understand that, like all other RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 will continue to mutate. The mutated virus can also be contained through measures such as social distancing, hand hygiene, use of masks and also by a vaccine, when available. “
The meeting was chaired by NITI member Aayog, Dr. VK Paul and Dr. Balram Bhargava, Director General of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and featured members from the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and senior officials of the Ministry of Health. .
India recorded 22,273 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, bringing the total cases to 1.01 crore, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. Less than 3 lakh of them are currently infected with the coronavirus, he said.
Daily cases have been steadily declining in the country since they peaked in September, although the country still has the second-highest number of infections in the world, after the United States.
A total of 1,47,343 people have died from COVID-19 in the country, and 251 of those deaths occurred in the past 24 hours, the first time the number fell below 300 in six months, the ministry said.
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