India steps up surveillance even as WHO says new UK COVID-19 strain 'not deadly'

The Indian government said all UK-India flights will be suspended from December 23 to December 31 as a more infectious coronavirus strain has been found in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Denmark.

New Delhi: The world is trying hard to tackle the pandemic. As it was not enough, a more infectious coronavirus strain has been found in numerous countries including South Africa, United Kingdom, Brazil, Denmark. 

According to the prestigious journal Science, the variant 'B.1.1.7' has taken over 17 mutations, all at once, which is a unique phenomenon. According to this report, The UK may just have picked it up first because that country has the most sophisticated SARS-CoV-2 genomic monitoring in the world. Many countries have little or no sequencing,"

The Indian government Monday (December 21) said all 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. All passengers coming from the UK on Monday (December 21) and Tuesday (December 22) would be compulsorily tested for coronavirus on arrival at airports.

World Health Organisation (WHO) emergencies chief, Michael Ryan said that 'We have had a much higher (contamination rate) at different points in this pandemic and we have got it under control.' He added that 'even if the virus has become a little bit more efficient in spreading, the virus can be stopped.' He urged by saying that, We need to do what we have been doing, we may just have to do it with a little more intensity and for a little longer to make sure we can bring this virus under control.'

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director-General Shekhar Mande said that the coronavirus vaccines will be equally effective against the new mutant of the virus and there is no reason to panic. The transmissibility of this new strain is comparatively higher than known coronavirus but that is not a reason to get scared of it.  

He also said that 'Scientists are looking at the mutations very closely. It is too early to draw any conclusions'. He added by saying that the new coronavirus variant can be diagnosed with existing RT-PCR tests but it needs to be assessed if it can be equally effective for the Rapid Antigen tests. 

Indian institutions have sequenced over 4,000 genomes of the coronavirus and submitted to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID). The CSIR's Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad have alone done sequencing of over 2,200 genome sequences of coronavirus in India.