Centre extends guidelines for surveillance against Covid-19 over UK virus strain

In an order issued on Monday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated: "While there has been a continuous decline in the active and new COVID-19 cases, there is need to maintain surveillance, containment and caution, keeping in view the surge in cases globally, and emergence of a new variant of the virus in the United Kingdom (UK)."

"Accordingly, Containment Zones continue to be demarcated carefully; prescribed containment measures strictly followed within these zones; COVID-appropriate behaviour promoted and strictly enforced; and the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) prescribed in respect of various permitted activities followed scrupulously," the order said.

"Therefore, the focused approach on surveillance, containment and strict observance of the guidelines/ SOPs issued by MHA and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MOHFW), as envisaged in the Guidelines issued on 25.11.2020; need to be enforced strictly by States and UTs," it added.

Although there has been no incidence of the new mutant causing coronavirus in India, the Centre had banned flights from the UK until Dec 31.

In fact, all passengers on arrival from the country before the ban was implemented had been subjected to RT-PCR tests for the coronavirus.

The new strain is believed to be 70 per cent more infectious and was first detected in the United Kingdom in September,

Earlier, India's National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19 met on Saturday to discuss evidence-based modifications in testing, treatment and surveillance strategies for SARS-CoV-2 in view of the recent reports of emergence of the new variant strain of the virus from the UK.

The National Task Force had deliberated in detail on aspects related to current National Treatment Protocol, testing strategy and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 vis-à-vis the UK variant strain.

It was emphasized that since the UK variant strain is implicated to cause increased transmissibility of the virus, it is critical to identify individuals infected with this strain and adequately contain them to prevent its transmission in India.