The highly-mutating
new coronavirus variant found in South Africa has now triggered an alert in
India. The Union Health Ministry, in a communique Thursday, said that states
need to rigorously screen and test travellers coming in from the three
countries where the variant has been confirmed — South Africa, Botswana and
Hong Kong. Experts say that the new B.1.1529 variant has a “very unusual constellation
of mutations”.

The communique
issued by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan says that India’s National
Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has informed the government that there are
multiple cases of a COVID-19 variant B.1.1529 have been reported in South
Africa (6 cases), Botswana (3 cases) and Hong Kong (1 case).

Reports of more
cases of the variant have been reported since the communique was issued. According
to Rajesh Bhushan, the new variant is “reported to have a significantly high
number of mutations and thus, has serious public health implications for the
country, in view of recently relaxed visa restrictions and opening up of
international travel.”

“It is therefore
imperative that ALL international travellers travelling from and transiting
through these countries, (they are part of the “at risk” Country Category of international
travellers coming to India) …are subjected to rigorous screening and testing,” the
communication said and added that contacts of such travellers must also be
closely tracked in accordance with health ministry guidelines.

States will now be
required to send samples from COVID-19 positive travellers to designated labs of
the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Sequencing Consortium (INSACOG). INSACOG tracks and
monitors the emergence and transmission of variants of concern and variants of
interest. State-wise COVID surveillance officers will coordinate with INSACOG
labs.

South Africa’s
National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) issued a statement Thursday
which said that 22 positive cases of the B.1.1.1529 variant have been recorded
in the country following genome sequencing collaborations between NICD and
private laboratories.