India reports 20 more cases of UK Covid-19 strain, total 58

As many as 58 persons have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

“The total number of cases infected with the new strain of the novel coronavirus first reported in the UK now stand at 58,” Union Health Ministry said.

On January 4, the total count of those infected with the new UK virus in India stood at 38.

The ministry has said all those who tested positive have been kept in single room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by respective state governments and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine.

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

The Indian government has made preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant. The strategy includes temporary suspension of all flights coming from the UK from December 23 till January 7 and mandatory testing of all UK-returned air passengers through RT-PCR test.

The samples of all UK returnees found positive in RT-PCR test will be genome sequenced by a consortium of 10 government labs- INSACOG

All the international passengers who have arrived in India between December 9 to 22, if symptomatic and tested positive for Covid-19, will have to undergo genome sequencing as part of the Centre’s strategy to detect the mutated UK variant in them.

Others will be followed up by the respective state and district surveillance officers and will be tested as per ICMR guidelines (even if asymptomatic) between fifth and tenth day, according to the Union Health Ministry’s guidance document on genomic sequencing.

Meanwhile India added 16,375 coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, placing its overall number at 1.03 crore cases, the Health Ministry’s data showed. The number of fresh infections is marginally lower than on Monday. In this period, India reported 201 deaths linked to the virus, taking the total number of fatalities to 1,49,850.