District admin to surveil 113 returnees from UK

The district health department will monitor 113 passengers who arrived in Gurugram from the United Kingdom over the last four weeks, to identify coronavirus cases

The district health department will monitor 113 passengers who arrived in Gurugram from the United Kingdom over the last four weeks, to identify coronavirus cases and especially those infected with a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus. Increasing the surveillance measures, a senior health official said that contact tracing exercise has been initiated to quickly trace immediate contacts, who might have developed symptoms.

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On December 22, the Haryana director of general health services wrote a letter to the deputy commissioner and chief medical officer of the district, calling for enhanced surveillance, containment and other safety measures to tackle the phylogenetic cluster of SARS-CoV-2 variant in the district.

Since Gurugram is in close proximity to the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi and has a substantial population that travels internationally, compared to other districts, the health department has been directed to quicken the pace the contact tracing exercise. The letter stated that any interjection of the SARS-CoV-2 variant virus through passengers with air travel history could pose a critical risk for pandemic management in Haryana.

“There are at least 113 people who have travelled recently (to the UK) from November 25 to December 20. Our teams will contact them and collect samples if detected with symptoms,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

“Considering the new strain of the virus, the samples of the suspected cases will be sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, for genomic sequencing through spike gene-based reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR),” he said.

Daily calls will be made to the 113 persons to monitor influenza symptoms, such as fever, cough and cold, over the last 28 days.

According to the Central government guidelines, as a part of immediate steps, travellers who are found positive on arrival have to be sent for institutional quarantine or to isolation facilities set up by the district administration. Those who do not test positive will also be advised to isolate themselves at home for seven days and to be monitored medically.

For surveillance and follow up measures, RT-PCR test would be administered after seven days of their arrival. In case if any person develops symptoms after seven days, they have to be tested through RT-PCR. If found positive, they would be tested between fifth and tenth day, as per the ICMR guidelines, using the RT-PCR kits.

On December 21, India suspended all its flights to and fro from the UK between December 23 and December 31 to check the transmission of a new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.