NEW DELHI: The National Working Group in Covid-19 has recommended that, as part of “prospective surveillance”, 5% of positive cases from all states and UT be analyzed for whole genome sequencing to verify the presence of the “UK strain” which is considered to have a higher degree of infectivity.
A genomic surveillance consortium, INSACOG, has been formed under National Center for Disease Control for epidemiological and laboratory surveillance of circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2. In addition, more than 50 samples of Returnees from the UK are in sequence in designated labs. The task force said improved genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 is critical. As part of the surveillance strategy at work, all passengers who came from the UK between December 21-23 were tested for Covid-19 at airports and passengers who reported negative are allowed to leave. On Saturday, the NTF deliberated on issues related to the current National Treatment Protocol, testing strategy and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 against the UK variant strain. The meeting was convened by ICMR under the co-chairmanship of Vinod Paul, Member, Niti Aayogand CEO of ICMR Balram bhargava.
NTF concluded that it is not necessary to change the existing treatment protocol in view of emerging mutations in the strain. It was also emphasized at the meeting that since the UK variant strain is implicated in increasing the transmissibility of the virus, it is critical to identify individuals infected with this strain and properly contain them to prevent its transmission in India.
The current strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant works on three levels: at points of entry (all international airports in India), community surveillance, and prospective surveillance. People who have tested positive upon arrival from the UK are in institutional isolation and their samples are sent to WGS. The list of all arrivals to the UK during the last 28 days has been shared by Immigration office with the states and all passengers who arrived between November 25 and December 20 are being tracked by the IDSP State Surveillance Units and District surveillance units.
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