New Delhi: The number of people infected with the new coronavirus strain in India climbed to 90 on Saturday. Yesterday, a Delhi resident had tested positive for the new mutated strain, that was first detected in the United Kingdom. Besides, Madhya Pradesh also reported its first case of new coronavirus variant, which is said to be 70 per cent more infectious than the first one. The patient, a 39-year-old man, has no symptoms. He had returned to Indore from the UK last month.
“All these persons have been kept in single-room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by respective state governments”, the health ministry had earlier said. Besides, their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travelers, family contacts and others, while genome sequencing on other specimens is going on, the ministry added.
The situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to states for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing and dispatch of samples to designated labs.
The cases have seen a steady rise this week, as the number of people infected with the mutant strain stood at 58 on Tuesday and 82 on Wednesday. On January 6, the number of people who had tested positive for the highly infectious variant was 73.
Apart from India, many countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore have reported the cases of the new UK-variant.