No need to worry over UK virus mutation: Central government

Dr VK Paul, member, Niti Aayog and the chairman of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration, said scientists in India are examining the different mutations in laboratories. "As of now no signal similar to the virus in UK have been detected," he said.

New Delhi:The central government on Tuesday reiterated that there is no need to panic following the detection of Covid19 virus mutation in the United Kingdom (UK) as no similar virus mutation has been detected ever since the Covid19 pandemic broke out in India.

"There is no such mutation in India. Though our scientists too have detected several mutations those were insignificant. However, we need to be more vigilant," said Dr VK Paul, member, Niti Aayog.

Dr Paul who is also the chairman of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration said that scientists in India are examining the different mutations in laboratories. "As of now no signal similar to the virus in UK have been detected," he said.

He clarified that there is no change in treatment guidelines of Covid patients due to the detection of virus mutation "which has the capacity to spread infection rapidly."

"The development (virus mutation) will not have any impact on the progress of vaccine development," said Dr Paul while addressing a press conference in New Delhi.

He also said that the virus that was detected in UK neither increase fatality nor hospitalization.

Dr Paul admitted that India has done considerably well in the fight against Covid19. "We need to continue the momentum and ultimately we can suppress the virus," he said.

Dr Paul said that as a precaution central government has temporally restricted all flights from UK till December 31.

"We have also issued a SOP to all states and UTs suggesting the authorities with dos and don't as far as treating the people coming from abroad especially with the connection to UK," Dr Paul said.

He said that the Bureau of Immigration will share a list of passengers coming from UK or linked to the country, with states and UTs.

"People coming since November 23 up to December 22 will be traced and properly monitored," said Dr Paul.

He informed that Covid19 vaccine candidates of three vaccine manufacturers are under consideration of DCGI. "One of the Pharma company has submitted more additional details to the drug regulator for further examination," he said.

It may be mentioned here that Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) have been asked to provide more data to the DCGI for emergency use authorisation of their vaccine candidate in India.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhusan who was also present in the press conference said that India's Covid19 caseload as well as fatality is much lower in comparison to the global scenario.

He said that India's active cases at present are less than three lakhs after 163 days. "We have daily new cases less than 20,000 after 173 days, whereas more than 16.3 crore tests have been conducted so far," said Bhushan.

India's Covid19 recovery rate is more than 95.65 percent.

Bhushan, however, said that maximum cases in states like Kerala, Maharastra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh are a matter of concern.

Fatalities in Maharastra, West Bengal, Kerala, Delhi and Chhattisgarh is also a matter of concern.

"We keep asking the concerned state Government and UTs to increase their number of testing followed by proper social protocol," said Bhushan.