Covid-19: Screening of passengers from eight countries yet to start

Health authorities in Karnataka haven’t yet started screening passengers from eight countries that have reported cases of the XE variant of the novel coronavirus.

On April 11, the state’s Technical Advisory Committee recommended screening and surveilling passengers arriving from China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Germany, Italy, Australia and the UK. The recommendation has remained just as much, said State Health Commissioner D Randeep. He, however, added that the government would likely issue an order (mandating the screening) on Wednesday or Thursday. As many as 6,475 passengers have already arrived in Bengaluru since April 1.

Asked about tracking and monitoring these passengers, the commissioner said: “We will initiate (monitoring) prospectively. This is not quarantine. It is only telemonitoring and testing only if (they are) reported symptomatic.”

Meanwhile, over 475 sequences from the XE variant have been uploaded to the global database GISAID or Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data.

But now that XE cases have been detected in India itself, the sequence information could provide more clues about the variant.

Dr Meenal Vyas, Associate Principal Scientist, Genotypic Technologies, a Bengaluru lab that’s part of INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium), said: “The data is publicly available for sequencing of 475 XE cases. It is mainly coming from the UK and from three labs. But now that cases have been reported in India, hopefully, we will get more information about the XE.”

Speaking of China’s zero-Covid policy, Dr Sudha Rao, co-founder and researcher of Genotypic Technologies, said: “It is difficult to know if, in such an environment, the surge in cases is due to the recombinant XE. It means their population may not be exposed to the new variants. It remains to be seen if XE causes significant morbidity and hospitalisations.”

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