New Delhi : The first confirmed case of Omicron sub-version BA.4 has prompted the National Centers for Disease Control (NCDC) to resume contact tracing after a gap of nearly three months.
A government official said on condition of anonymity that a team of NCDC has already tested 24-25 people who came in direct contact with African nationals infected with BA.
The Union Health Ministry and the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) convened a meeting on Friday to strengthen the surveillance strategy. Last week, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) asked countries to be vigilant about BA.4 and BA.5 variants following a spike in BA.5 infections in Portugal.
“In February, the government stopped contact tracing. However, after a meeting of INSACOG and the Union Health Ministry, extensive contact tracing has been initiated for those who came in contact with the person. The report is likely to come by next week.”
On Thursday, Mint reported that the African national had arrived in India for a business meeting, but was tested positive on arrival at Hyderabad airport. His sample was sent for sequencing and he was found to be BA.4. There was no response till press time to the queries of the Health Ministry spokesperson in the early hours of Friday.
According to the World Health Organisation, contact tracing is important to prevent further transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Although the ECDC said that BA.4 and BA.5 are of concern, experts say it is difficult to predict public health concerns so far. “Inascog is a platform for variant mapping. More variants will emerge, but only time will tell whether a new variant is of public health concern. Therefore, one should neither create panic nor be less alert.” should be followed,” said Dr Samiran Panda, Additional Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research.
In the last 24 hours, 2,259 fresh Covid cases were reported in India to take the number of active cases to 15,044 with a weekly positivity rate of 0.53%. Delhi (2,377), Haryana (1,248), Uttar Pradesh (898), Kerala (3,579), Karnataka (1,726) and Maharashtra (1,720) have the highest number of active cases. Around 2,614 patients have recovered from Kovid in the last 24 hours.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has also asked states and union territories to expedite immunization in view of the steady decline in vaccination numbers in some states.