Curb crowding on New Year, check super spreader events: Health Ministry

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to all the states and union territories asking them to curb crowding in the wake New Year celebration and keep a strict vigil on all events that could be a potential superspreader the ministry said on WednesdayA total of 107 samples have undergone genome sequencing till now and as many as 20 people who have returned from the UK to India have tested positive for the new more infectious coronavirus strainOn Tuesday six patients were found to be infected with the mutant virus These were the first cases to be reported by the countryThe Union Health Secretary has written to all the states to keep a strict vigil on all events that could be potential superspreader events and to curb crowding in the wake of the New Year celebrations and various events associated with it as well as ongoing winter season the ministry said in a statementThe Ministry of Home Affairs has mandated that States and UTs based on their assessment of the situation may impose local restrictions with a view to contain the spread of Covid19 such as night curfewDrawing attention to this the Health Secretary has urged the States to promptly assess the local situation and consider imposition of appropriate restrictions on December 30 and 31 2020 as well as on January 1 2021Earlier today the Centre extended the suspension of flights to and from the United Kingdom till January 7 amid alarm over the new highly contagious strain of the coronavirusThe decision was taken on the recommendations of a Joint Monitoring Group JMG headed by the Director General of Health Services DGHS and the National Task Force jointly headed by DG ICMR and Member Health NITI AayogIt has also been suggested to Ministry of Civil Aviation that after January 7 2021 strictly regulated resumption of limited number of flights originating from UK into India may be considered the statement by the health ministry readThe British Government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 per cent more transmissiblePursuant to announcement by British government Indian government had taken cognisance of the reports of mutant variant and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant It included temporary suspension of all flights coming from UK with effect from the midnight of December 23 till 31From November 25 to December 23 midnight about 33000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by States and UTs to RTPCR testsNotably the presence of the new UK Variant has already been reported by Denmark Netherlands Australia Italy Sweden France Spain Switzerland Germany Canada Japan Lebanon and SingaporeKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever