E-Paper
544 passengers came to Pune from UK, all test RT-PCR negative: PMC
All these passengers have submitted their reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) reports in which they have tested negative for the Sars-Cov-2 virus which causes the Covid-19 infection
The central government has sent the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) a list of 544 passengers who have come to the city after their visit to the United Kingdom post-December 1.
All these passengers have submitted their reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) reports in which they have tested negative for the Sars-Cov-2 virus which causes the Covid-19 infection. Now, the civic body will conduct a repeat test of all these passengers on the fifth and seventh days of their return date, of those who came to the country post-December 19.
As per the new standard operating procedure (SOP) by the Centre given the new strain of the Covid-19 virus, all passengers returning from the UK have to undergo compulsory tests and institutional quarantine.
The new guidelines also add that samples of positive patients will be referred to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for genomic sequencing. This test will verify whether the virus is matching with a new variant or not.
Rubal Agarwal, additional municipal commissioner, who is also incharge of the health department, said, “We have received a list of about 544 passengers who came from the UK from December 1. Our health department has started contact tracing these passengers. Meanwhile, we had sought an RT-PCR report from all of them and they all have tested negative.”
“As per the new protocol, we will repeat an RT-PCR test on the fifth and seventh day for all those who arrived here after December 19. The government notification came on December 22 and so those who came after that will be put in institutional quarantine while those before will be advised home quarantine,” she said.
Many medical experts say that those testing positive should be retested with the TaqMan or TaqPath to confirm the new strain. Or their genomes should be sequenced.
Agarwal said, “As we have not got any such guidelines to seek specific RT-PCR guidelines, we are asking them to produce RT-PCR reports from the ICMR approved labs.”
Dr Aurnab Ghose, associate professor at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) said, “The current RT-PCR tests would be able to pick up the new strain as well as the current strain which is circulating in the country. The RT-PCR tests would generally detect the three genes of the virus and will also pick up the new strain of Covid which is believed to spread faster and since the RT-PCR tests multiple genes simultaneously, it is unlikely that the test would not pick up the new strain of the virus. It may not be able to detect which strain it is which is only possible after genome sequencing.”
The central government has issued SOPs on December 22 in the wake of the new variant of Sars-Cov-2 virus which has been reported by the Government of the United Kingdom (UK) to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The SOP read, “This variant is estimated by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) to be more transmissible and affecting the younger population. This variant is defined by a set of 17 changes or mutations. One of the most significant is an N501Y mutation in the spike protein that the virus uses to bind to the human ACE2 receptor. Changes in this part of the spike protein may result in the virus becoming more infectious and spreading more easily between people.”
The government of India has issued special guidelines for those passengers who arrived in the country before the SOP was issued and a list of all such passengers has been given to the respective states and city administrations for further action like contact tracing and institutional quarantine. Although Pune airport does not receive any flights from the UK directly, there may be passengers who landed at other international airports in the country and then travelled to the city via roadways or railways.
Passengers testing positive will be isolated in an institutional isolation facility in a separate (isolation) unit coordinated by the respective state health authorities. They would earmark specific facilities for such isolation and treatment. Necessary action to send the samples to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune or any other appropriate lab for genomic sequencing will be initiated at the facility level. If the report of the sequencing is consistent with the current Sars-Cov-2 virus genome circulating in the country, then the ongoing treatment protocol including home isolation/treatment at the facility level as per case severity may be followed. However, if the genomic sequencing indicates the presence of a new variant of Sars-Cov-2 then the patient will continue to remain in a separate isolation unit. While necessary treatment as per the existing protocol will be given, the patient will be tested on 14th day, after having tested positive in the initial test. In case the sample is found positive on the 14th day, further samples may be taken until the two consecutive samples taken 24 hours apart are tested negative.
