Home Articles ‘No change in treatment protocol’: COVID task force as India readies plan...
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New Delhi: Amid fears about the mutated variant of coronavirus traced in the UK, the National Task Force on COVID-19 on Saturday held a meeting to discuss strategies to detect and contain the new strain of the virus.
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During the meeting, the task force deliberated in detail on aspects related to evidence-based modifications in testing and treatment and surveillance strategies to detect the new variant of COVID-19.
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More than 50 samples of those who have arrived from the UK are currently under sequencing at the eight designated laboratories across the country to find out if they have the mutant strain, officials said.
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All passengers who had returned from the UK between November 25 to December 20 are also being tracked by surveillance officers.
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Besides, the list of all UK arrivals during the last 28 days has been shared by the Bureau of Immigration with the states concerned.
No change in existing treatment protocol
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The task force was of the view that there is no need to change the existing treatment protocol in view of mutations emerging in the strain.
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It also emphasised the need for enhanced genomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 apart from the existing surveillance strategies especially in UK returnees and decided that samples of five per cent of the positive cases from all states and UTs will be sent for genome sequencing.
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A genomic surveillance consortium, INSACOG, has been formed under the leadership of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for laboratory and epidemiological surveillance of circulating strains of the SARS-CoV-2 in India, the Centre said.
“It is important to understand that like all other RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 will continue to mutate. The mutated virus can also be contained by measures like social distancing, hand hygiene, wearing masks and also by an effective vaccine, as and when available,” Union Health Ministry said in a statement.
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The meeting was chaired by NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul and Dr Balram Bhargava, Secretary, Director General ICMR and was attended by AIIMS director Randeep Guleria; and representatives from Union Health Ministry.
