India successfully cultures new strain of novel coronavirus from UK: ICMR

No country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2, ICMR said

Indian scientists have successfully isolated and cultured the new 'more infectious' strain of Covid-19, which had originated in Britain recently.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Saturday said scientists at its National Institute of Virology had isolated and cultured the UK variant of the SARS-Cov-2 from the clinical samples collected from passengers who had returned from Britain.

It said that SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19, was being tracked through the countrywide network of ICMR-laboratories since early days of the epidemic in India.

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No country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK variant, the ICMR said adding that vero cell lines were used to culture the UK-variant of the virus.

India has reported 29 cases of the new coronavirus variant, that is spreading rapidly around Britain and other countries, within five days of tracing its first such infection.

The new United Kingdom variant genome of SARS-CoV-2 – B.1.1.7, which is much more infectious, has prompted comprehensive contact tracing for co-travellers, family members and others of those who have travelled to the UK in the last 38 days.