India’s count of highly infectious UK variant of COVID-19 cases jumps to 82

Jan. 8: A total of 82 people have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. This came on a day India resumed flights from the UK. The government has reduced the number of flights to UK from 60 per week to 30 to contain the faster-spreading mutant strain The number of such people stood at 73 till January 6 (Wednesday), it added.

All these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated Health Care facilities by respective state governments. Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others.

The  results are based on the genome sequencing of positive samples released by the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (Insacog) labs that the Centre has specifically created for the purpose of monitoring any kind of mutations in the virus. The new strain of positive Covid-19 samples are being tested at 10 INSACOG labs (NIBMG Kolkata, ILS Bhubaneswar, NIV Pune, NCCS Pune, CCMB Hyderabad, CDFD Hyderabad, InSTEM Bengaluru, NIMHANS Bengaluru, IGIB Delhi and NCDC Delhi) for genome sequencing.

This variant of SARS-CoV-2, first detected in Kent, England, has now reached over 30 countries around the world. The Union health ministry in a statement said, “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 new coronavirus variant found in the UK is said to 70 per cent more infectious than the first one.