PremiumAs many as 114 people have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India until Friday, said the Union Health Ministry.
The ministry further informed that the situation is being monitored carefully and regular advice provided to states.
The government had earlier said that patients of the new strain are admitted in single room isolation at designated Health Care facilities by respective states.
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Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine and comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others, it said, adding that genome sequencing on other specimens is going on.
The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by several countries including Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.
Flights from the UK have resumed from 8 January. Passengers will have to undergo an RT-PCR test both in the UK before boarding their flight and after arriving in India.
Meanwhile, India has recorded 87 fresh coronavirus cases per million population in the last seven days, which is one of the lowest in the world, when compared with countries like America, Britain, Russia, Germany, Brazil, France and Italy
The health ministry said that only one new death per million population was reported in the country in this period.
"With a case fatality rate of 1.44%, Covid-19 deaths per million population in India are one of the lowest in the world," the ministry underscored.
India's total coronavirus active caseload continues to manifest a sustained downward movement and has dropped to 2.13 lakh comprising just 2.03% of India's total infections, it added.
The daily new cases added to the country's Covid-19 numbers have been below 20K in the recent days, it said.
India's Covid-19 caseload rose to 1,05,27,683 with 15,590 people testing positive for the infection in a day on Friday, while the recoveries have surged to 1,01,62,738. The total recovered cases stand at 10,162,738. The country's death toll increased to 1,51,918 with 191 daily new fatalities.
