India’s Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan Issues Covid Variant alert over South Africa’s new variant

The Union Health Ministry directed states on Thursday to rigorously screen and test travelers coming from or transiting through three countries where the variant had been confirmed — South Africa, Botswana, and Hong Kong — just hours after South African authorities announced the discovery of a new variant of the novel coronavirus with a “very unusual constellation” of mutations.

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan stated in a communication to all states and union territories that India’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has informed the government that “multiple cases of a Covid-19 variant B.1.1529 have been reported in Botswana (3 cases), South Africa (6 cases), and Hong Kong (1 case).”

“This variant is reported to have a very high number of mutations, which has serious public health concerns for the country, given recently loosened visa requirements and increased international travel,” Bhushan added.

“It is therefore critical that ALL international travellers arriving from and transiting through these countries, (they are part of the “at-risk” Country Category of international travellers coming to India)…be subjected to rigorous screening and testing,” according to the statement. “These international travellers’ contacts must also be properly tracked and tested in accordance with MoHFW rules.”

A traveller from South Africa is the subject of the Hong Kong case. According to a Reuters article from Johannesburg, South African scientists stated the changes found in B.1.1529 were “concerning because they could enable it dodge the body’s immune response and make it more transmissible.”

All states will be required to send samples from Covid-positive travellers to designated labs of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Sequencing Consortium (INSACOG), which tracks and monitors the emergence and transmission of variants of concern and variants of interest in India, in accordance with Bhushan’s directive.

To avoid the spread of the variation and the formation of case clusters, Covid surveillance officers in the states will have to communicate with INSACOG labs and conduct test-track-treat procedures.

Beta (Pango lineage B.1.351), one of the four variants of concern now designated by the World Health Organization, was first detected in South Africa in May 2020. The other three VoCs, Alpha (B.1.1.7), Delta (B.1.617.2), and Gamma (P.1), were discovered in September 2020, October 2020, and November 2020, respectively, in the United Kingdom, India, and Brazil.

 

“Following genome sequencing cooperation between the NICD and private laboratories, twenty-two positive cases of variation B.1.1.529 have been recorded in the country.” In addition, as sequencing data come in, other NGS-SA facilities are confirming more cases,” the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of South Africa stated in a statement on Thursday.

According to a Reuters article, early indicators from diagnostic laboratories suggest the mutation has rapidly expanded in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province, and may already be prevalent in the country’s other eight provinces.
“Despite the little data, our specialists are working around the clock with all of the established surveillance systems to better understand the novel variety and its possible ramifications,” the NICD said in a statement.
“Here is a mutant variety of considerable worry,” South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla told Bloomberg.
We were hoping for a longer gap between waves, perhaps until late December or even January next year.”

The administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced two occurrences of the novel variety in the region in an official statement. According to the press release, the cases in the Regal Airport Hotel showed “very comparable genomic sequences and the viruses belonged to a newly discovered lineage, B.1.1.529.”

“The sequences match those reported in South Africa and Botswana, indicating that case 12388, which arrived in Hong Kong from South Africa, was the index case.” It stated that “scientific evidence on the public health importance of this lineage is currently missing.”

In Botswana, four cases of B.1.1.529 have been documented in fully vaccinated travellers. “Preliminary investigations…have revealed that the new variant has a higher number of mutations than the regionally dominant Delta variant.” What this signifies is still up in the air, and it’s being looked into.

New variations have the potential to influence disease severity… The variant’s real-world impact has yet to be determined, according to Dr K Masupu, Coordinator of Botswana’s Presidential Covid-19 task team.