Citing Wardha case, guardian minister hints at changes in variant

NAGPUR: Guardian minister Nitin Raut on Saturday officially revealed detection of the UK variant in the swab sample of the woman from Wardha who tested positive after meeting her family members in the city’s Manish Nagar.
Citing this case as an example, the minister went on to say that some changes have been observed in the strain and “the exact situation will only be known after getting the results of the genome sequencing of 92 swab samples sent from the district”.
Raut said the UK variant has over 60% transmissibility, more than the existing one and causes high symptoms.
TOI was the only paper to report on March 18 about the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, detecting the UK strain (B.1.1.7) in the swab sample of the 48-year-old woman from Wardha and and acknowledged the strain as a variant of concern (VoC).
TOI talked to the woman who recovered and learnt that nine members from her family, including herself, contracted the disease. One family member without any comorbidities died. The woman had mentioned the locality in the city where the family is residing, but TOI had held back the identity.
Briefing mediapersons after a review meeting on Saturday, Raut said, “The woman from Wardha came to meet her family members at Manish Nagar. The entire family was affected with the disease. Later, she tested positive. The strain which emerged in Europe was detected in her swab sample,” he said.
Raut added that the UK variant is having over 60% transmissibility. “It is learnt that the patient suffers from loose motion, severe body ache and dehydration due to this variant. The entire family gets affected even if one member contracts the disease,” he said.
“Results of the swab samples sent from the city to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, are awaited. We have no information regarding the whereabouts of the samples. We will come to know only after getting the reports from NCDC,” he said.
“Union minister Nitin Gadkari also participated in the meeting through video conferencing. I have requested Gadkari to talk to the concerned officials of NCDC and help in getting the results as soon as possible. We can prepare a standard operating procedure (SoP) and line of treatment only after getting the reports from NCDC,” he said.
With cases surging in Vidarbha, samples of all districts were sent to NCDC in February. Barring 17 patients from Wardha, results of all the other samples are awaited.
The woman along with her in-laws had attended the ‘haldi’ ceremony of one of her relatives in the city on February 17. Her brother-in-law was the first from the family to test positive on February 22. He died on March 8. She had tested positive in Wardha on February 25 and was admitted to IGGMCH. She was discharged on March 6.
The woman also claimed that her repeat test was negative after she was discharged.
The NIV had received her swab sample on March 3 from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College run by Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha.