ICMR to look at seriousness of disease caused by UK Covid-19 variant

New Delhi, Dec 29 : After six returnees from the UK were found to be carrying the new coronavirus variant, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will now look at the seriousness of the disease caused by the mutation, its behaviour and immunology, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
A total of six UK returnees were found to be positive with the new variant genome, the Central government announced on Tuesday, adding that all these persons have been kept in a single room isolation in designated health care facilities.
Addressing a press conference, Dr V.K. Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog said: “ICMR has decided to look at the aspect of seriousness of the disease in such patients. Till now, it does not affect the seriousness but is more transmissible. We will go beyond genome sequencing to know about its behaviour and immunology. We will take more comprehensive scientific steps.” The British government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 per cent more transmissible. This had prompted Indian authorities to suspend flights to and from the UK till December 31.
The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon, and Singapore.
“The major population is still susceptible to Covid-19 infection in this cold weather. UK variant has travelled to several other countries and also to India, this variant may have its own run and we have to be very careful. One cannot be careless,” he added.