Possible that Covid-19 UK strain entered India before, says AIIMS director

Though the new strain has entered India, it has not affected India’s number of cases so far, Randeep Guleria said.

As at least 20 cases of the new UK strain of Covid-19 have been detected so far in India, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria on Wednesday said there might be some possibility that the UK strain was there in India before, during November-December as the strain was in the UK in September and there were people who got infected at that time. “It’s a possibility that UK strain may have entered India in November/early December. But if you look at it epidemiologically, this strain leads to an increase in infections. But if you look at our data for last 4-6 weeks, there was no spike in cases,” Dr Guleria told ANI.

Healthcare workers during COVID-19 screening and swab test at Malad in Mumbai on Wednesday. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Assuring that India is well-placed to combat even if there is an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases due to this new strain, the AIIMS director said India’s recovery rate is very high. So far — whenever the strain has entered India — it has not affected India’s number of cases or hospitalisation significantly, he said.

Acknowledging that the new strain is more dangerous as it is believed to be more infectious, Dr Guleria said there is need to be extra careful now to make sure that it does not impact India in a big way.

The government had launched the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG), comprising 10 labs, in the wake of the new strain of the coronavirus being detected in the UK. The department of biotechnology on Wednesday said a high-level inter-ministerial committee will guide INSACOG.