Bhubaneswar: Amid concerns following the disclosures made by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday about the discovery of UK variant of covid-19 virus in Odisha, the clarifications made by the Institute of Life Science (ILS), Bhubaneswar on Thursday brought some succour.
ILS Director, Dr. Ajay Parida said that persons carrying the mutant UK strain, which was detected in December last year, have fully recovered.
"Three UK returnees had tested positive in December. Samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune which found them carrying the UK variants of nCOV-2. They have fully recovered and did not infect anyone," Parida said.
Similarly, a double mutation had been traced in the sample of a positive patient in December. “He has also recovered and the infection has not spread,” he added.
He said so far 220 samples which had been collected in December, January and February have been analysed. “Only one double mutation had been detected from those samples in a person who had tested positive in December. Now, he is doing fine and has not infected anyone," Parida said.
As many as 10 centres of Institutes of Life Science (ILS) across the country including ILS, Bhubaneswar had conducted genomic surveillance taking 5% of positive cases detected in December when the UK variant was detected in Odisha for the first time.
ILS Bhubaneswar had conducted analysis on the samples from Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Another mutation, N440K, had also been detected in Odisha which is neither so infectious nor dangerous. So far, such mutation (N440K) has been traced to three persons each in Odisha and Chhattishgarh among the positive cases.
So far, the re-infection rate in Odisha is not like Maharashtra and Punjab which have witnessed a surge from 1:1 to 1: 1.5 of the re-infection rate, the ILS director said.
The strain which has been detected in Maharastra and Punjab is more infectious as the rate of infection is doubling within five- six days. “This situation has not yet come to Odisha,” Parida claimed.
"The situation in Odisha is under control unlike Punjab or Maharashtra. There is no need to panic. But, we have to be very careful. We should follow appropriate Covid behaviours like using of face mask, social distancing and taking vaccine dose whenever the turn comes," he added.
Daily spike in positive cases have been witnessed only in some particular pockets. “The government is taking proactive measures declaring these areas as micro containment zone to prevent further spread,” Parida added.