90 in India have new UK coronavirus strain

The presence of the new UK-variant has already been reported by several countries

The number of persons infected with the UK strain of the coronavirus have increased to 90, the health ministry said on Saturday even as flights from Britain resumed after a 16-day suspension to prevent the spread of the mutant strain in India.

According to the ministry, all the 90 persons have been kept in a single-room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by the respective state governments and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine.

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“Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is also on,” the ministry added.

Flights from the UK resumed on Friday after the government had suspended all the services on December 23.

India first detected the “more transmissible” UK strain of SARS-CoV-2 on December 29 when six passengers who had returned from Britain were found to be positive with the new variant genome.

The tracing and testing were initiated after the British government announced that a newly identified strain of the virus, which is up to 70 per cent more transmissible, was found in their population.

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Countries such as Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore have also reported the mutant strain of the virus.

India has initiated heightened surveillance measures to detect the UK strain of the coronavirus by making it mandatory for passengers traveling from Britain to undergo a RT-PCR test on arrival at airports here.