India has reported 16 more cases of new UK coronavirus mutant strain, pushing the total tally to 20, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Of the 20 cases detected with the virus, eight have been registered at National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi, seven at National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-sciences in Bangalore, two at cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad.
One each has been reported at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics near Kolkata, National Institute of Virology in Pune and CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi, according to IANS.
“All these persons have been kept in single-room isolation in designated health care facilities by respective state governments. Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts, and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on,” the Health Ministry said.
“Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on.”
“The situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhances surveillance, containment, testing and dispatch of samples to INSACOG labs,” the ministry had said.
As per the data provided by the ministry, November 25 to December 23 midnight, about 33,000 disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK. All these passengers are being tracked and subjected to RT-PCR tests by respective state governments.
A total of 107 samples have undergone genome sequencing as on date. On Tuesday, first six case of the new virus strain were detected e central government had announced.
As a precautionary measure, the government of India took the reports of virus reported from the UK and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and contain the virus. The Union Aviation Ministry also announced a temporary suspension on UK travel from December 23 to December 31 in the same light.
Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore are other countries to report the presence of the new UK variant
