20 cases of UK coronavirus strain in India as 14 more returnees test positive

Fourteen more cases of new mutant coronavirus strain which was first reported in the United Kingdom have been registered in India the government said on WednesdayOn Tuesday India had recorded the first six cases of the new strain as people who returned from the UK tested positive All these persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities The mutated variant of SARSCoV2 first detected in the UK is said to be 70 per cent more infectiousOf the 20 cases eight have been registered at National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi 7 at National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences in Bangalore two at Cellular and Molecular Biology in HyderabadOne each has been logged at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics near Kolkata National Institute of Virology in Pune and CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in DelhiA twoyearold girl in Meerut has also tested positive for the new strain said Meeruts Chief Medical Officer Akhilesh MohanThe parents of the twoyearold though Covid positive however have been found to be infected with the mutant They had all returned from the UK the health officials in Meerut said The child is in an isolation ward with her parents at Meeruts Subharti Medical CollegeA total of 107 samples have undergone genome sequencing till nowAll international passengers who arrived in India during the 14 days from December 9 to December 22 if symptomatic and tested positive will be subjected to genome sequencing in a bid to find if they have the new UK coronavirus strainOthers will be followed up by the respective states and district surveillance officers and tested as per ICMR guidelines even if asymptomatic between the 5th and 10th day according to the Union Health Ministrys guidance document on genomic sequencingAll the international passengers who have arrived in India during last 14 days from 9th December to 22nd December 2020 if symptomatic and tested positive will be subjected to genome sequencing it statedBesides this ten regional labs have been identified by the Centre where states and Union Territories will send five per cent of their COVID19 positive samples for genome sequencing to detect the new coronavirus variantBetween November 25 and December 23 about 33000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK ldquoAll these passengers are being tracked and subjected by statesUTs to RTPCR tests So far only 114 have been found positive for COVID19rdquo the health ministry had saidThe British government had recently announced that the newly identified strain of the virus found in their population is up to 70 per cent more transmissibleIt is important to note that 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 SingaporeFew days back the Indian government had taken cognizance of the reports of mutant variant of SARSCoV2 virus reported from the UK and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant It included temporary suspension of all flights coming from the UK with effect from the midnight of December 23 till 31With inputs from agency