20 more test positive for new Covid-19 strain raising the total count to 58

Photo Credits: PTI file photo

As per the official records of the Union Health Ministry, twenty additional people have been tested positive for the new mutant Covid-19 strain, raising the total count in India to 58.

The Union Government has directed the states to gear up with the containment and surveillance measures.

11 samples of the new strain were identified at IGIB, New Delhi, 10 were detected at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, 25 at NIV-Pune, 8 at NCDC-New Delhi and 1 at NIBMG-Kolkata, and 3 at CCMB-Hyderabad on Tuesday.

NIV-Pune tested the additional 20 Covid-10 cases and discovered the samples to be positive with new strain.

The state government has passed the orders with which the affected patients are in single room isolation as per the designated health care facilities and their contacts have also been subjected to quarantine. Alongside, contact tracing is on-going to track the co-travellers, family contacts and others. The health Ministry added the genome sequencing is also in-process for the specimens. 

The Centre has set-up 10 INSACOG labs to conduct the genome sequencing of the people returned from UK and also the Covid-19 test has been conducted for their relatives and contacts. Apart from the laboratories which have tested the mutant strain, the other four laboratories allocated for it are NCBS-InSTEM in Bengaluru, CDFD in Hyderabad, ILS in Bhubaneswar and NCCS in Pune.

Presently, countries like Denmark, Italy, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Lebanon and Germany have detected the new variant discovered in the UK.

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