India recorded 18,732 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, taking its total to 1,01,87,850. This is the lowest daily count in nearly six months, according to NDTV. As many as 97,61,538 people have recovered from the infection so far.

Around 2.78 lakh are active cases, the health ministry said. A total of 1,47,622 people have died of the coronavirus in the country, with 279 of those deaths reported in 24 hours, the data showed.

The National Task Force on Covid-19 on Saturday held a meeting to discuss testing, treatment and surveillance strategies, in view of the emergence of a new variant strain of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom.

The task force concluded that there was no need to change the existing treatment protocol in view of mutations emerging in the strain, a release by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated.

The health ministry, which took into consideration the recommendations of the experts, said that since Indian Council For Medical Research had always advocated the use of two or more gene assays for testing Sars-CoV-2, it was unlikely to miss infected cases using the current testing strategy.

At the same time, it was emphasised that since the new strain is believed to cause increased transmissibility of the virus, it is critical to identify individuals infected with this strain and adequately contain them to prevent its transmission in India.

More than 50 samples of people who have returned from Britain are currently being sequenced at six labs across the country to find out if they have the mutant strain, the government said. District surveillance officers are also identifying passengers who have arrived from the country in the last month.

The task force also agreed for the need of routine genomic surveillance to track different strains of the coronavirus, and decided to ensure that apart from the UK returnees, samples of 5% of positive cases from all states and the Union Territories will be sent for genome sequencing.

A genomic surveillance consortium called INSACOG was formed under the leadership of the National Centre for Disease Control for laboratory and epidemiological surveillance of circulating strains of the coronavirus in the country, the government said.

However, it is important to understand that like all other RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 will continue to mutate, it added. “The mutated virus can also be contained by measures like social distancing, hand hygiene, wearing masks and also by an effective vaccine, as and when available.”

The meeting was led by NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul and and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research Balram Bhargava. It also included members from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and top health ministry officials.