P. Sarojini
New Delhi, India (CWBN)_ According to the news from government sources, Health Ministry of India today called an emergency meeting with the joint monitoring group on COVID-19 to discuss about the highly transmissible mutant coronavirus spreading in the UK. Flights to and from Britain have been banned by many European countries. On considering the seriousness of the matter, Indian government too banned flights to and from UK.
Following the discovery of the new strain of mutant coronavirus in the country, Britain cautioned the world that this latest strain of the virus is out of control and that the government has enforced a rigorous new stay-at-home lockdown since Sunday.
News from government sources said that the mutated coronavirus variant identified in the UK was the key topic of discussion by the Joint Monitoring Committee led by the Director General of Health Services (DGHS). The committee also discussed the effective preventive measures to be taken against this new threat. The measures to be taken by the healthcare sector as well as the government and other sectors were also discussed in the meeting. Roderico H Ofrin, India’s representative of the World Health Organization and a member of the monitoring committee also attended the emergency meeting.
On Sunday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock cautioned that rigorous measures affecting nearly a third of the population of England will remain in effect until the virus vaccine is completely rolled out. He said, “We acted very quickly and decisively”. Mr. Hancock explained the order to stay at home banning Christmas family get-to-gathers and shutting down non-essential stores. He warned, “Unfortunately, the new strain was out of control. We have got to get it under control.”
As drug makers are only in their starting stages of testing vaccines, the new mutation of the coronavirus is troubling scientists around the world. The latest variant of the coronavirus which is claimed to be 70% more infectious was first found by the scientists in a patient in September. On Friday, Public Health England, a government department, cautioned the country as modelling showed the full severity of the current strain.
Britain’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty indicated that the new strain is more infectious. He added, “there is no current evidence to suggest (it) causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is underway to confirm this”.
