5 from Mumbai, 1 Each from Pune, Thane, Mira Bhayandar Test +ve for UK Strain as 38 Indians Get Infected

A total of 38 people have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. These include the 29 cases which were announced till Friday.

All these people have been kept in single room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by respective state governments and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine, the ministry said.

Of the 38, the mutated UK strain was detected in eight samples at National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, 11in theInstitute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, one in the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani (near Kolkata), five in the National Institute of Virology in Pune, three in Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB)in Hyderabad and 10 were sequenced at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Hospital (NIMHANS),Bengaluru.

Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope on Monday evening informed that five UK returnees from Mumbai, one each from Pune, Thane and Mira Bhayandar have tested positive for the new strain.