The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday said that the total number of cases infected with the United Kingdom strain of the Coronavirus stands at 73. The ministry further added that 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 ministry said.
Countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore have also reported the presence of the new UK variant. The Government of India took cognizance of the reports of virus reported from the UK and put in place a proactive and preventive strategy to detect and contain the mutant variant, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, the government will conduct the second dry run of the Coronavirus vaccine on January 8 ahead of the final rollout. According to news agency ANI, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will meet Health Ministers of all the states/ UTs tomorrow (January 7).
Earlier today, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar visited the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) covid vaccine storage centre and took stock of the arrangements. “Date of vaccination is yet to be announced but I think it will begin this month”, CM Nitish Kumar said.