National carrier Air India has issued a directive to its crew members across international and domestic stations to remain isolated in their allocated rooms for the complete during of their layovers in light of the discovery of a new strain of the coronavirus (Sars-Cov-2) said to spread faster.
The directive comes right after India joined a growing list of countries on Monday to seal off access to people who have been to the United Kingdom, suspending all flights to and from the country between December 23 and December 31 in order to stop the arrival of the new strain.
“As Britain battles a resurgence of Covid-19, there is disturbing news of the new mutated strain being up to 70% more contagious, as per some sources. Southeast England and the city of London have been put under a strict ‘stay-at-home’ as the virus spread has been termed to be ‘out of control’ and the situation declared to be alarming,” the circular issued on Monday noted. HT has reviewed a copy.“ Keeping in view the gravity of the situation, crew laying over at all domestic/international stations are hereby directed to remain isolated in their allocated rooms for the complete duration of the stay. This directive is for the strictest compliance and any contravention of the same may irresponsibly expose you or others to this global scourge,” it added.
The UK government will impose a Tier 4 lockdown across the country and tighten restrictions for all of England, especially during the festive period.
Viruses mutate often as the biological process of replication within hosts they infect is not always a perfect process. The Sars-Cov-2 has also been mutating, but none of these changes have been seen as worrying as yet.
Experts from the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium on Saturday said the new variant is significant because it now “accounts for an increasing proportion of cases in parts of England”, “has an unusually large number of genetic changes, particularly in the spike protein”, and the mutations have “have potential biological effects”.