Health Ministry Calls Emergency Meet Over The Fast-Spreading Mutant Strain Of Coronavirus Detected In The UK

In a major development, the Dr harsh Vardhan led Union Health Ministry has called an emergency meeting of its Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) today (21 December) morning over the new mutant strain of the coronavirus which is spreading "out of control" in the United Kingdom (UK), reports Hindustan Times.

This comes after Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson's administration has put into force all-new restrictions in London over the threat posed by the new strain of coronavirus which as per UK's chief medical officer Chris Whitty could be as much as 70 per cent more transmissible.

The JMG meeting will be chaired by the Director General of Health Services (DGHS). Also, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) India representative Dr Roderico H Ofrin, who is also a member of the JMG, is likely to participate in the meeting.

It should be noted that several nations across Europe and the rest of the world have placed indefinite or definite bans on travel to and from the UK.

While Netherlands has announced a ban on all UK passenger flights, Belgium has announced a 24 hours ban on flights and halted all train links. France has meanwhile suspended all travel links to the UK for 48 hours, and similarly, Ireland has also banned all incoming flights from the UK for 48 hours. Italy, Germany, Kuwait, Israel and Austria have also announced similar restrictions.