India records 6 new cases of the UK Covid-19 strain, tallying the total to 96

Photo Credits: PTI

The Health Ministry revealed on Monday the total number of cases of the new mutant Covid-19 strain has increased to 96, even as the flights resumed to Britain post a 16 day suspension to contain the spread of the new strain in India.

As per the ministry, the 96 infected people have been in single room isolation in the appointed healthcare facilities based on the state governments and also their contacts have been directed for strict quarantine.

The ministry added, “Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is also on.”

The flights from UK have commenced again post the suspension declared on December 23. The first case of the SARS-Cov-2 was identified on December 29 after the 6 returnees were tested positive for the variant genome.

The testing was directed after the declaration from the UK government which mentioned about the new strain having 70 per cent higher transmission capacity.

Several countries like Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Spain, Sweden, France, Japan, Lebanon, Germany and Canada have also identified cases of the new strain. Considering the requirement of the situation, India has initiated high surveillance by taking a mandatory RT-PCR test for passengers coming from Britain on arrival.

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