BHUBANESWAR: In the midst of the threat posed by the new Covid-19 variants across the country, three samples from Odisha were found to be carrying the highly infectious UK strain and one having double mutation.
Of the 771 variants of concern detected among 10,787 positive samples from 18 states, three are from Bhubaneswar. The three belong to one family who had returned from Britain in mid-December last.
The person found with the double mutation variant is from Nuapada district and had returned from Maharashtra. All the samples had been tested in December.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health department PK Mohapatra said the government was well aware about presence of new strains in the State and it was deliberately not made public to avoid unnecessary panic among people.
The State government claimed all precautionary measures and follow up actions were taken after the UK strain was found in the samples sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for genome sequencing.
“They tested positive after their arrival and were treated in a Covid hospital here. Comprehensive tracking of close contacts, their prompt isolation and testing were done. All measures were put in place to ensure that it did not spread,” he said and appealed people not to panic as the infection was confined to the three only.
Around 181 people had returned to Odisha from Britain between November 31 and December 21 and seven had tested positive.
Apart from the seven samples sequenced at Pune, genome sequencing of 125 samples have been conducted at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), a part of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics comprising 10 national laboratories, between December and March.
Five samples from the State have been found with the N440K variant that is associated with immune escape and one sample with the E484Q and L452R double mutation, which confer immune escape and increased infectivity.
However, ILS Director Dr Ajay Parida said there is no reason to panic as the double mutation found in one sample was not significant. It was a very old sample and no further infection spread was identified.
“We are now sequencing 200 more samples from Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. The results are awaited,” he added.