New Delhi, January 6: A total of 73 persons have been detected with the new and more contagious coronavirus (COVID-19) strain, India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Wednesday. All the infected 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. New Coronavirus Strain: India First in World to Successfully Culture and Isolate 'UK Variant' of COVID-19-Causing SARS-CoV-2 Virus.

Of the 73 cases of the mutant virus, 30 samples were found to be infected with the new COVID-19 variant at National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) recorded 20 cases and 11 were registered by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences Hospital (NIMHANS) Bengaluru. Delhi-based National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recorded eight cases. 4 Types of Coronavirus Strain Circulating Around the World Since Pandemic Began, Says WHO.

New Coronavirus Strain Cases in India Surge to 73:

Hyderabad’s Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) found the mutant virus in three samples. One sample was found to be infected by the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) in Kalyani. The new strain of coronavirus was first detected in the United Kingdom. On December 29, a total of six UK returnees were found to be positive with the new variant genome in India. These were the first cases to be reported by the country.

From November 25 to December 23 midnight, about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK. All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by States and UTs to RT-PCR tests. According to the Ministry of Health, 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 labs. (With IANS inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 06, 2021 05:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).