38 persons infected with new strain of coronavirus: Ministry of Health

New Delhi: Nine more people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the country have been found to be infected with the new mutated strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

With this, the number of people infected with the new UK virus in India has reached 38.

Of the 38 cases of the mutated strain of Covid-19, 10 have been detected at NIMHANS in Bengaluru, eight in NCDC Delhi, five in National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune, three in CCMB Hyderabad, 11 in Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) New Delhi, and one case at NIBMG Kalyani.

As of 1 January, the number of such cases in India was 29. The Union Ministry of Health has started comprehensive contact tracing for co-travellers, family contacts and others to curtail the spread of this mutated variant of the killer virus.

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

The positive 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, NCDC Delhi -- for genome sequencing.

"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. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on," the health ministry said in a statement.

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, it added.

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

As per the Indian government data, around 33,000 passengers disembarked at various airports from the UK between 25 November to 23 December midnight.

All these UK returnees are being tracked and subjected by states and Union Territories to RT-PCR tests.