new delhi to keep a close check on the new strain of coronavirus which is potentially more infectious the health ministry has asked state governments to send the samples of the passengers who tested positive on arrival from the uk to the national institute of virology niv pune or any other designated lab for genome sequencing studythe new set of standard operating procedure sop issued by the ministry on tuesday describes various activities to be undertaken at the point of entry and in the community for all international passengers who have travelled from or transited through the uk in the past 4 weeks from november 25 to december 23all such passengers disembarking in india will be subject to a mandatory rtpcr test and also a spike genebased rtpcr test if they test positivein case of positive cases the patient will continue to be in a separate isolation facility coordinated by the respective state health authorities if the sequencing is consistent with the current strain of the virus going around in the country then the ongoing treatment protocol including home isolation or treatment at facility level as per case severity will be followedthose who are found negative on testing with rtpcr at the airport would be advised quarantine at homethe statewise passenger manifest of the flights from uk landing at various international airports in india for the past four weeks will also be conveyed by the bureau of immigration to state governments and integrated disease surveillance programmethe list of international travelers who arrived in india in the last two weeks will be shared with the respective state or district surveillance officer who will ensure daily follow up of passengers under observation for 28 days starting from date of arrivalall the community contacts without any exception of those travelers who have tested positive would be subjected to institutional quarantine in separate quarantine centers and would be tested between 510th daythose international travellers from the uk who arrived in india from november 25 to december 8 1st and 2nd week from november 25 will be contacted by district surveillance officers and advised to selfmonitor their health if anyone amongst them develops symptoms they will be tested by rt pcr and subjected to the protocols as stated in the sop