20 more people test positive for new UK COVID-19 strain in India; Total rises to 58

New Delhi, Jan 05: In a recent development, as many as 20 more people tested positive for the new UK variant of Sars-CoV-2, the total number of UK returnees having tested positive for the mutant virus in the country has reached 58.

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.

According to reports, the samples have so far been sequenced in six of the 10 designated labs across the country.

Among the sequenced samples, 10 samples tested positive in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, three in CCMB, Hyderabad, five in NIV, Pune, 11 in IGIB, Delhi, eight in NCDC, New Delhi, and one in NCBG, Kolkata.

NCBS, InSTEM, Bengaluru, CDFD Hyderabad, ILS Bhubaneswar, and NCCS Pune have so far found no traces of the UK variant among the samples that have been sequenced in their labs.

From November 25 to December 23, 2020, about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK. All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by states to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests to detect COVID-19.