New Virus Strain In Telangana, AP; 14 Day Quarantine For Travellers From Telugu States

The new coronavirus variants B.1.617 and B.1, are currently found among the COVID-19 patients in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, Andhra Pradesh.

According to the April COVID data, the double mutant B.1.617 is found in about 50-60% cases in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Karnataka.
So, the Delhi government has made a 14-day institutional quarantine for those who are coming to the national capital city from Andhra Pradesh or Telangana by bus, train, flight, car, truck or any mode of transportation.

According to an order released by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Thursday, "Those who have been completely vaccinated with both doses, can show their certificate on entering Delhi and can undergo home quarantine for seven days. The same applies to the people who have a negative RT-PCR report that is no more than 72 hours old."

If home quarantine is not available for the aforementioned people, they can choose a week long quarantine at an institutional or paid facility.
All the government officials travelling to Delhi on official work have been exempted from the rule.

According to reports, the new Covid-19 variant found in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has a shorter incubation time and a high transmission rate.
AP Covid Command and Control Centre Chairman KS Jawahar Reddy said in a statement, "The major strains identified from the samples of south India (AP, Karnataka, Telangana), from the positives of the April month data, are B.1.617 and B.1, which are very infectious and also spreading in the younger age groups apart from the adults. It is pertinent to note that COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update of April 25, issued by WHO, mentions about lineage B.1.617 as VOI (Variant of Interest) from India and doesn't mention the variant N440K."

He also quoted, "If this variant is of such public health concern, it should have by now found a place in WHO as well as ICMR reports."

Genome sequencing has been carried out in CCMB, Hyderabad, for the samples collected from AP, Telangana and Karnataka.