COVID-19 new strain: 20 UK returnees test positive in India

In a recent development, a total of 20 new people in India now have the new coronavirus strain. This includes the 8 new COVID cases recorded on Tuesday, as per the health ministry.

Reportedly, The samples that tested Covid positive for the new strain were 8 from NCDC, Delhi; 7 from NIMHANS, Bengaluru; 2 from CCMB, Hyderabad; 1 from NIBG, Kolkata; 1 from NIV, Pune and 1 from IGIB, Delhi.

 All these people have been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine.

Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others.

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Nearly 33,000 passengers had disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK between November 25 to December 23. All these passengers are being tracked and were subjected by states/UTs to RT-PCR tests.

 "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 enhanced surveillance, containment, testing and dispatch of samples to INSACOG labs," the ministry had said.

Meanwhile, India has suspended all passenger flights connecting to the UK in the wake of the emergence of a mutated variant of the coronavirus there, joining several other countries that have imposed a similar flight ban.

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