IT Correspondent
New Delhi, Dec 28:
Mutant strain of coronavirus found in the United Kingdom was not seen in the samples tested from various parts of India, Dr Samiran Panda, director of ICMR-National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) has said.
Dr Panda said, “We have tested samples collected from the various parts of the country and haven’t seen the mutant strain found in the UK. We shouldn’t think that this will definitely come to India. The transmission and severity of the disease are not known. This particular finding needs to be seen in scientific light and also in the right perspective. We need to be watchful as COVID-19 is a new phenomenon and was unknown to the immune system. The virus changes under immunological pressure for survival and due to proliferation as well,” he explained.
He said that whether the new strain of the virus will cause a serious public health threat is unclear as of now. “We are keeping tracking of the viral genome that is circulating within the country. Over the last six-seven months, the viral genome studies that have taken place involving over 2,000 samples that have not identified this mutation.”
Dr Panda said that India is not a country where all the states are behaving homogeneously. Some of the states are witnessing an upsurge of infection. Behavioural intervention which are the key prevention measures for breaking the chain of virus transmission should be strengthened, irrespective of the new mutant coming to India or not. The seven-eleven sub-types of coronavirus are already known but not each one that is identified needs to be seen with panic. If all the clinical indications like the severity of the disease, fatality rate are remaining low, we don’t need to panic at all but we need to be watchful that the scientists are coming across,
Any vaccine against virus works by stimulating the immune response against different components of the virus. It is premature to think that the efforts to develop a vaccine is going to fall apart. There isn’t enough scientific evidence to say that the vaccine is going to fail, he said.
Export curbs on medical goggles, gloves removed
In the meanwhile the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has removed export curbs on medical goggles and gloves, which were in demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic, to boost outbound shipments of these products. The export restrictions were imposed on account of the spread of Covid-19. “The export policy of medical goggles and Nitrile/NBR gloves is amended from restricted to free category making all types of medical goggles and Nitrile/NBR gloves freely exportable,” the DGFT said in a notification.
