The central government confirmed on Tuesday that the samples of six UK returnees in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune have been found to be positive with the new variant genome, which is 70 per cent more transmissible. So far, 20 returnees have been found Covid-19 positive, and the states of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh have been put on high alert.
Just as the year comes to an end, the disturbing news of the more powerful and mutated coronavirus has once again upped anxiety levels among millions of Indians who are expecting a massive vaccination drive, which health experts have said may probably counter even the mutant strain or future mutations.
Is India ready to tackle the new virus strain?
With a high level of transmissibility of the mutant strain, people cannot afford to lower the guard. All precautions, including wearing a mask, sanitizing, social distancing need to be in place, along with the avoidance of the 3Cs -- closed spaces, crowded spaces, and close contact.
According to health experts, no new precautionary measure is required to the existing ones but strict adherence to may help. Since the new strain is expected to infect people even at a distance of six meters, people shouldn't be under any false sense of security, say experts. We just need to remind ourselves daily that despite lower numbers, the pandemic is not over yet.
What is the Govt doing?
Britain, seen as the origin of the mutant strain, however, imposed the strict Tier 4 lockdown, including the banning of all non-essential travel across the country.
Even though Indian authorities have tracked down and subjected all the UK returnees to RT-PCR tests across the country, the focus is on a preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant. Besides a temporary ban on UK flioghts, hopes are high on a quick roll out of the vaccination drive.
The Press Information Bureau has ruled out another national lockdown and stated that no such decision has been taken. If the problem gets out of hand, lockdown in small pockets will be considered, though. Health experts had already warned last month that the second wave of the pandemic is gripping India gradually.
Somebody get the vaccines, please!
As far as vaccinations are concerned, Prof K. Vjaraghavan, secietific adviser to PM, told NDTV on Wednesday that the current vaccines against COVID-19 will be effective against the new strain of the virus detected in Britain and elsewhere.
Even the European Medicines Agency had earlier said, "At the moment there is no evidence to suggest" that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine "is not effective against the new variant", noting that the mutation of the new strain is in the spike protein.
In India, the Serum Institute has already manufactured 50 million doses of Covishield vaccine, the Indian variant of Oxford-AstraZeneca's AZD1222 vaccine, on at-risk funding. Indian vaccine manufacturers are planning to develop 3.2 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines, which will be rolled out once the emergency use approval is received.
