Four cases of the SARS-CoV-2 variant strain from South Africa and one case of the Brazil variant have been detected in the country, the Health Ministry confirmed on Tuesday. India has so far reported 187 cases of the UK variant.
Giving details of these cases, which he said have been tested and isolated, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Balram Bhargava said, “South African variant of SARS-CoV-2 which has spread to 44 countries has entered India. The strain has been detected in four different SA returnees this past month — Angola (1), Tanzania (1) and South Africa (2). All travellers have been tested, quarantined and ICMR-NIV is attempting to isolate and culture the SA variant.”
Earlier this month, one case of the Brazilian variant, which emerged independently in that country in early January, was reported in India.
“This variant has shown mutations in the receptor binding domain of the spike protein and increased transmissability has caused it to spread to 15 countries so far. India has confirmed one case of the variant strain detected in a Brazil returnee in the first week of February. The traveller and contacts have been tested and quarantined. The virus strain has been successfully isolated and cultured at ICMR-NIV, Pune, and experiments to assess vaccine effectiveness are underway,” said Dr. Bhargava speaking at the Health Ministry’s press conference.
He added that the UK strain which emerged in September 2020 has so far spread to 86 countries including India. “Neutralisation potential with UK variant of the virus is there with the vaccine that we have,” he added.
Speaking about measures to restrict and check the entry of COVID virus strains (South Africa/Brazil) into the country, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that flights from South Africa and Brazil to India are routed through Gulf countries. “So though there are no direct flights, the government is looking at bringing in measures to check passengers from these countries,” he said.
Stating that India should continue its vigil to contain the COVID virus despite the fall in number of active COVID cases in India and vaccines member (health) NITI Aayog V.K. Paul, noted that India is now giving COVID vaccines to 24 countries.
“We don’t still fully understand the virus and need to be serious about vaccinating while following COVID appropriate behaviour. The vaccines are safe and can be given to people on blood thinners and aspirin,” he added.
Giving data on COVID cases, the Ministry said currently only two States have more than 35,000 active cases contributing to 72% of the cases.
“Kerala (61,550) and Maharashtra (37,383) continue to top the list of States with most active cases and we are closely monitoring the situation here,” said Mr. Bhushan. He also said that 11 States/ UTs with vaccination coverage of less than 50% including Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Chandigarh, Nagaland and Puducherry have been instructed to have multiple vaccination sessions.
The Ministry added that more than 88.5 lakh COVID19 vaccine doses have been administered so far and more than 1.3 lakh vaccine doses were given on Tuesday.
