Amid new Covid strain fears, India makes RT-PCR test compulsory for those arriving from 7 more nations

These seven countries include South Africa, Bangladesh, and China

With the arrival of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 on the horizon, India has strengthened its airport surveillance by making it mandatory for passengers from seven additional countries including South Africa and China to undergo a RT-PCR check on arrival.

Other nations on the list are Botswana, Bangladesh, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Thursday.

Since February, RT-PCR test was a must for travellers arriving from the UK, European and the Middle East countries.

The step has been taken in the wake of the emergence of the C1.2 variant in South Africa and a few other countries. “Globally there are107 sequences, of which 85 per cent are in South Africa. So far there is no presence of the variant in India,” noted virologist Shahid Jameel told DH.

Read more: Full vaccination prerequisite for attending mass gatherings during festivals: Centre

While those tested positive would be followed up by the health officials from the respective states, the samples from Covid-19 positive persons would be sent to the laboratories under the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genome Consortia for sequencing to check the entry of the new variant.

According to a biologist, airport surveillance would indeed be important to track any emerging variant across the globe. “But looking at the numbers, it appears that the lineage is not on an alarming rise even in South Africa,” he said.

The initial discovery of C.1.2 seems to have come from the Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces of South Africa and as of August, the variant has been found in six of the nine South African provinces.

The variant has been widely discussed among scientists and health researchers since it has 14 mutations in the spike protein.

“At this point in time, we do not know whether the variant is more transmissible or causes immune escape, though the mutations have been independently associated with such properties. Research is under way to better characterise and understand its properties,” Vinod Scaria, a scientist at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi wrote in a report.

On the vaccination front, Bhushan said more than 18 crore shots were administered in August and the last week witnessed a daily vaccination in excess of 80 lakh doses. Nearly 54 per cent of adults got the first dose, while 16 per cent received both the doses.

Three states and Union Territories – Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Himachal Pradesh – gave the first shot to 100 per cent of their adult population, whereas more than 85 per cent of the target population in Tripura, Mizoram, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Daman & Diu received the first dose.

But worryingly, India recorded more than 47,000 fresh cases on Wednesday – the biggest single-day rise in two months – riding high on the growing caseload in Kerala.