The Union government is fully alert and there is no need to panic, assured Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday, speaking about the emergence of a mutated variant of the coronavirus in the UK, which has led to a surge in the infection rate there. He said the government had done everything that was important to handle the COVID-19 situation in the last one year.
Responding to a question on the panic over the new strain and a demand to ban flights from the UK, Vardhan told reporters, "I would say this to all that all these imaginary situations, imaginary talks, imaginary panic... don't involve yourself in this."
"The government is fully conscious about everything. If you ask me, there is no reason to panic the way we are seeing in this press conference," the minister added. The Union Health Ministry had called an urgent meeting of its Joint Monitoring Group on Monday to discuss the new strain.
A number of European countries have banned flights from the UK as the British government warned that the potent new strain of the virus was "out of control" and imposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday. WHO's India representative Dr Roderico H Ofrin, who is also a member of the JMG, also participated in the meeting.
A surge in the infection rate caused by the new variant of the coronavirus has led to millions entering a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown in the UK from Sunday, with non-essential shops and businesses now closed. Also read: France, Germany ban flights from UK fearing new coronavirus strain
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the new rules at a briefing from 10 Downing Street on Saturday evening, which means a planned five-day Christmas bubble of relaxed rules has been cancelled in favour of a new Tier 4 level to the current three-tier lockdown system to try and control the surge in infections being caused by the new mutation of the deadly virus.
"It seems that the spread is now being driven by the new variant of the virus, Johnson said. Also read: New coronavirus variant spreading faster in UK, stricter restrictions imposed
We have alerted the World Health Organisation and are continuing to analyse the available data to improve our understanding, said Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England.
There is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a higher mortality rate or that it affects vaccines and treatments although urgent work is underway to confirm this, he said.