Health ministry says number of people infected with UK COVID strain in India stands at 38

A total of 38 people have been tested positive with the new UK variant of the SARS-CoV-2 in India, confirmed the Union Health Ministry on Monday. Those infected have been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities by respective state governments and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. 

"A total of 38 samples have been found to be positive with the new UK variant genome," the ministry said. It said comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. "Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on," it added.

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Three such new cases in Rajasthan

Three people have recently tested positive for the UK variant in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district.

"Three persons have tested positive for the new UK variant of coronavirus. Their samples were sent to Delhi. All three have been shifted to the district hospital. Contact tracing and their sampling have been done. The area where they live has been sanitised," Hawaiian Singh, SDM Sriganganagar told ANI.

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38 people tested positive from different parts of the country

Out of 38, the mutated UK strain was detected in eight samples at National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, 11 in the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, one in the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani (near Kolkata), five in the National Institute of Virology in Pune, three in Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad and 10 were sequenced at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Hospital (NIMHANS), Bengaluru.

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The NCBS, InSTEM in Bengaluru, CDFD in Hyderabad, ILS in Bhubaneswar and NCCS in Pune have so far found no UK mutant virus, the Health Ministry has said.

As per the experts, the new COVID-19 strain is more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 variants. On January 2, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said India has successfully isolated and cultured the UK-variant of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. It is to mention that no other country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2, the ICMR informed. 

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(With Agency Inputs)