In March last year, Kashmir reported the first covid-19 case. The cases increased almost exponentially, peaking in September and October. As per officially announced figures, the tally has reached 121227 in Jammu and Kashmir as of January 1. Since the first case was reported, Jammu and Kashmir look much more prepared in terms of testing capacity, public awareness while a vaccine is being rolled out “very soon”. In fact, Oxford-AstraZeneca’s ‘Covishield’ has become the first vaccine to get approval in India. While the virus seems to be tamed down in India, a new variant from the U.K. and confirmed in at least 29 travellers from there puts country back at the base of a new learning curve. First reported to WHO on December 14, the new variant also referred to as ‘U.K. strain’, was detected only following an unexpected case spike in South East England and from October 5 to December 13, over 50% of isolates were identified in the region. As per scientists, there are 14 significant mutations of the variant, which could affect healthy cells or worsen compromised immune systems.
The distinct phylogenetic cluster of virus is believed to be more transmissible than the current strain of the SARs-CoV-2 that has already infected around 80 million people worldwide and caused about 1.9 million deaths globally, including 1884 in Jammu and Kashmir. Globally, especially in UK, the virus is indirectly contributing to a higher death toll. Even though the world has only now woken up to the new variant, it may have been circulating in the U.K. as early as October, and with people flying on the U.K.-India route, it is quite likely that this may have already caused its circulation in India. Jammu and Kashmir is “alert” but one may not exactly know if the variant is already in circulation.
On Friday, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Department chaired a meeting regarding the handling of UK returnees. A need to speed up the process of tracing out the travellers with the support from concerned district administrations was underlined. Concerned were asked for keeping these returnees in the government quarantine centers after they are identified. The Union Ministry of Health has issued guidelines that require all state and UT governments to subject all passengers coming from UK to much reliable Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests on arrival. The J&K as per official statements have put in place the mechanism and it needs to be adhered to in letter and spirit.
