Suspension of flights from UK till 7th January recommended; In Maharashtra: Covid-19 restrictions to continue till 31 January
By Raju Vernekar
New Delhi,Mumbai, Dec 30:
A total of 20 persons have been found with the mutant variant of SARS- CoV-2 virus reported from UK as per the samples tested by “Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium” comprising 10 laboratories across the country, set up by the Government of India.
Out of 107 samples tested, 20 tested positive for new variant. The break of the samples tested is: NCDC, Bangalore -samples tested 14( positive 8), NIBG, Kalyani, Kolkata 7(1), National Institute of Virology, Pune (NIV), Pune 50(1), The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences, Bangalore (NIMHANS), 15(7), The Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad 15(2), IGIB 6(1), DBT, Bangalore 0(0) total 107(20). No samples were tested at DBT, Bangalore, DBT, Pune,, ILS Bhubaneshwar, Odisha and NCSS, Pune.
Those affected by new mutant variant of SARS- CoV-2 virus include three persons from Karnataka, two from Telengana, one from Andhra Pradesh. Another person was tested positive for new variant after he was screened at a facility of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation on Wednesday.
A 47-year-old Anglo-Indian woman, who returned to Rajamahendravaram in Andhra Pradesh on 23 December 23, was found to have contracted the new mutated strain. Her son tested negative while another person who came in contact with her also did not contract any virus. The woman travelled to Visakhapatnam from New Delhi by AP express.
Besides 18 returnees from UK to Kerala have showed signs of new variant. Of these samples of 8 people have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for Genomic analysis, while the rest have been sent to institutional quarantine.
In the meanwhile authorities are in search of 109 people who returned to Pune from UK. Similarly the Odisha health authorities have formed six teams to trace out 27 people who escaped from institutional quarantine of 7 days. The Karnataka is struggling to locate nearly 570 of them who have gone missing.
While nearly 33,000 passengers returned to India from UK between 25 November and 4 December, 2020, 114 of them tested positive for COVID-19 and their samples have been sent for testing.
The Union Health Ministry, has stated that daily recoveries have outnumbered the daily new cases since last 33 days. In the last 24 hours, 20,549 persons were found to be COVID-19 positive in the country. During the same period, 26,572 new recoveries were registered ensuring drop in the active caseload.
India’s cumulative recoveries stood at 98,34,141 on 30 December. The recovery rate reached nearly 96% and the gap between recoveries and active cases is consistently widening (95,71,869).
78.44% of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States/UTs. Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 5,572 newly recovered cases. 5,029 people recovered in Kerala followed by 1,607 in Chhattisgarh.
Ten States/UTs account for 79.37% of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (68). West Bengal and Delhi follow with 30 and 28 daily deaths, respectively.
In the meanwhile, the Health Ministry has recommended to the Ministry of Civil Aviation the extension of the temporary suspension of flights originating from UK into India to be further extended till 7th January (Thursday), 2021. This has been recommended based on the inputs received from the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) headed by the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) and the National Task Force jointly headed by DG, ICMR and Member (Health), NITI Aayog.
It has also been suggested to Ministry of Civil Aviation that after 7th January 2021, strictly regulated resumption of limited number of flights originating from UK into India may be considered. The specifics of such a mechanism may be worked out by Ministry of Civil Aviation in consultation with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
The Union Health Secretary has written to all the States to keep a strict vigil on all events that could be potential “super spreader” events, and to curb crowding in the wake of the New Year celebrations and various events associated with it as well as on-going winter season.
The Home Ministry has also stipulated that there shall be no restriction on interstate and intra-state movement of persons and goods. Drawing attention to this, the Health Secretary has urged the states to promptly assess the local situation and consider imposition of appropriate restrictions on 30th and 31 December, 2020 as well as on 1st January, 2021.
In another development, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday extended the COVID-19 restrictions (including night curfews) till January 31. A notification to that effect was issued by the chief secretary Sanjay Kumar.
