As world governments rushed to contain a new, heavily mutated Covid-19 strain by shutting their borders, states in India have increased surveillance of foreign travellers and amped up Covid testing and other measures to check the new variant. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for a proactive approach and a review of plans for easing of international travel curbs and urged people to be more cautious while several states moved quickly to take precautionary measures and remain vigilant.
Cases detected in many countries
Cases of Omicron variant have been detected in Australia, UK, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Bavaria and other countries. Many countries – including the United States, Brazil, Canada, European Union nations, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand – have announced travel bans or restrictions on southern Africa.
Coronavirus News LIVE Updates | Govt to Review SoP on Testing of Foreign Fliers from ‘At Risk’ Countries Amid Omicron Scare
Centre to Review SOP for international travellers
Following a review meet by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an urgent meeting was chaired by Home Secretary on Sunday at 11.30am. The meeting was held with various experts, Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Dr Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and senior officers from Health, Civil Aviation and other Ministries. The government will review the Standard Operating Procedure on testing and surveillance of incoming international passengers, especially for those countries identified ‘at risk’ category, sources said.
‘New variant has 30 mutations’
The new Omicron variant of coronavirus has reportedly got over 30 mutations in the spike protein region giving it the potential to develop a immunoescape mechanism, and thus the efficacy of vaccines against it needs to be evaluated critically, AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guelria has said. The presence of spike protein facilitates a virus’ entry into the host cell and is responsible for making it transmissible and causing infection.
The AIIMS director also said that multiple mutations at the spike protein region may lead to a decreased efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
States Amp up surveillance
In Mumbai, Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Saturday said that all the passengers coming to the city from that country will be quarantined. Meanwhile in Gujarat, passengers from countries categorized as ‘at risk’ by Health Ministry will have to undergo Covid-19 tests upon arrival in state if they are not fully vaccinated.
‘Alarm in Karnataka’
Officials were in panic after two Indian nationals coming from South Africa were detected Covid positive at Bengaluru airport. However, officials on Saturday said that the samples of the two infected were sent for genome testing and were detected with delta variant. Karnataka CM instructed authorities to increase surveillance at Kerala border districts and stressed mandatory RT-PCR tests for those arriving from Maharashtra, Kerala.
International travellers to undergo test in MP
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said all the people who arrived in the state from international destinations in the past one month will have to go undergo COVID-19 test. The state government also withdrew the earlier announced relaxations for schools and decided that they will continue to hold online classes and run physical classes with 50 per cent strength of students only after consent from their parents.
Delhi on High Alert
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that all government departments are on high alert in the wake of a new COVID-19 variant and appealed to people to avoid unnecessary gatherings. Sisodia said that government departments, especially health, have been instructed to again enhance infrastructure and other necessary facilities to tackle any possible threat of the new variant. The deputy CM appealed to the public to exercise caution about COVID-19 and follow social distancing norms even as the government is keeping a vigil on any possible case of the new variant.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment