NEW DELHI: Hours after South African authorities announced they had detected a new variant of the novel coronavirus with a “very unusual constellation” of mutations, the Union Health Ministry has directed states to rigorously screen and test travellers coming from or transiting through three countries in which the variant had been confirmed – South Africa, Botswana, and Hong Kong.
In a communication to all states and Union Territories, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said India’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has informed the government that “multiple cases of a Covid-19 variant B.1.1529 have been reported in Botswana (3 cases), South Africa (6 cases) and Hong Kong (1 case)”. “lt is therefore imperative that ALL international travellers travelling from and transiting through these countries, (they are part of the “at risk” Country Category of international travellers coming to lndia)…are subjected to rigorous screening and testing”, the communication said. “The contacts of these international travellers must also be closely tracked and tested as per MoHFW guidelines.”
The Hong Kong case is a traveller from South Africa. South African scientists told a news conference on Thursday that the mutations detected in B.1.1529 were “concerning because they could help it evade the body’s immune response and make it more transmissible”, Reuters said in a report from Johannesburg. Following Bhushan’s direction, all states will have to send samples from Covid-positive travellers to designated labs of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Sequencing Consortium (INSACOG), which tracks and monitors the emergence and transmission of variants of concern and variants of interest in India. Covid surveillance officers in the states will have to coordinate with INSACOG labs, and will have to undertake test-track-treat to prevent the spread of the variant and the formation case clusters.
Of the four variants of concern currently designated by the World Health Organisation, Beta (Pango lineage B.1.351), was first detected in South Africa in May 2020. The other three VoCs, Alpha (B.1.1.7), Delta (B.1.617.2), and Gamma (P.1) were first detected in the United Kingom, India, and Brazil in September 2020, October 2020, and November 2020 respectively.
“Twenty-two positive cases of variant B.1.1.529 have been recorded in the country following genomic sequencing collaborations between the NICD and private laboratories. In addition, other NGS-SA laboratories are confirming more cases as sequencing results come out,” South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said in a statement on Thursday.
