Of the six passengers with the variant, three were tested at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two at CCMB, Hyderabad and one at NIV, Pune.
New Delhi, December 29
The six UK returnees, who tested positive for the mutated virus, are largely asymptomatic and not too sick as the strain is not known to cause severe disease.
Rakesh Mishra, Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, one of the 10 labs in the national genome sequencing consortium tracking Covid positive UK returnees, today said the variant “is not worse than the others and clinically does not present different or severe symptoms, but it is much more transmissible”.
“Most people with the mutant strain are asymptomatic as is the case with normal strain where 80 per cent cases are mild,” he said.
Of the six passengers with the variant, three were tested at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two at CCMB, Hyderabad and one at NIV, Pune.
Mishra said the variant had a greater capacity to infect people and that was a matter of concern as India witnessed second largest number of cases after the US and variants could emerge from within the country as well. — TNS
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