A total of 25 people in the country have tested positive for the new UK variant genome of SARS-CoV-2 so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.
These 25 people include the 20 who were found positiive with the mutated strain on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“All 25 persons are in physical isolation in health facilities,” the health ministry said.
Among the new five cases, the mutated UK strain was detected in four at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune and one new case was sequenced at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, it said.
Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others.
“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 ministry said on Tuesday,
The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore, so far. The ministry said that from November 25 to December 23 midnight, about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK.