6 UK returnees test positive for mutant COVID-19 strain, India on high alert

India is on high alert after six UK returnees – three from Bengaluru, two in Hyderabad and one in Pune, tested positive for the mutant COVID-19 strain. The six individuals have been kept in isolation in private single rooms at state government facilities.

From November 25 to midnight of December 23, 2020, about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK. According to an official statement , all the passengers are being tracked and subjected by states to RT-PCR tests to detect the virus.

The Health 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. The Ministry of Home Affairs, on Monday, extended the COVID-19 guidelines for surveillance till January 31, 2021 and asked states and UTs to strictly enforce them. “While there has been a continuous decline in the active and new COVID-19 cases, there is a need to maintain surveillance, containment and caution, keeping in view the surge in cases globally, and the emergence of a new variant of the virus in the United Kingdom,” the ministry said.

The new COVID-19 variant has also been detected in Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore. Scientists believe the new variant may have been spotted in the UK first because of the strength of the country’s surveillance system. The new variant is considerably more transmissible than previous strains but not necessarily any more dangerous for those infected.

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According to CDC, viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of the virus are expected to occur over time. It said new variants emerge and disappear; other times, new variants emerge and start infecting people. The mutant variant is not alarming as multiple variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been documented in the US, and globally during this pandemic.