New Delhi: A national task force on Covid-19 on Saturday said that it is critical to identify individuals infected with the UK strain of the COVID-19 virus and adequately contain them to prevent its transmission in India.
In a meeting convened by the task force, it discussed in detail on aspects related to the current national treatment protocol, testing strategy, and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 along with the UK variant strain.
It was emphasised that since the UK variant strain is implicated to cause increased transmissibility of the virus "it is critical to detect persons infected with this strain."
The meeting of the task force was attended by Prof VK Paul (member Niti Aayog), Prof Balram Bhargava (DG-ICMR), Prof Randeep Guleria (Director-AIIMS), Directors from DCGI, DGHS, NCDC and other officials.
It was agreed in the meeting that there is no need to change the existing treatment protocol in view of mutations emerging in the strain. Further, since ICMR has always advocated the use of two or more gene assays for testing SARS-CoV-2, it is unlikely to miss infected cases using the current testing strategy.
Officials present in the meeting suggested that in addition to the existing surveillance strategies, it is critical to conduct enhanced genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 especially in incoming passengers from the UK.
"Besides, it will also critical to conduct genome sequencing in samples where there is a dropout of the S gene in lab diagnosis, proven case of a re-infection etc. Routine genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 from representatives samples all across the samples needs to be a continuous a d well-planned activity," it was pointed out in the meeting.
