150 people infected with UK variant of COVID-19 in India: Govt

The number of people who have tested positive for the UK variant of COVID-19 in India has climbed to 150, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

All of them have been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities by the respective state governments, the ministry had said earlier.

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 ministry said.

The situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing and dispatch of samples to INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium) labs.

"The total number of persons found infected with the UK strain of COVID-19 is 150," the ministry said.

The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by several countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.