India Reports 2 More Fresh Cases Of New Strain Of Coronavirus, Total 116 Cases have Been Detected So Far

 The Union Ministry Of Health and Family Welfare announced on Saturday that a total of 116 persons have been detected positive with the new strain of Covid-19.

The total number of persons found positive with the UK strain of COVID-19 is 116: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

— ANI (@ANI) January 16, 2021

Till January 15, the number of people affected by this strain of coronavirus was 114.

All these people were kept in single room isolation in designated healthcare facilities by respective state governments. Their close contacts have also been put in quarantine and comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others.

Genome sequencing on other specimen is going on, the ministry said, adding the situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing and dispatch of sample to INSACOG labs, the ministry said.

The presence of new UK  variant of Covid-19 has already been reported by Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.

However, the flight operations between India and UK resumed from January 8. Passengers will have to undergo an RT-PCR test both in the UK before boarding their flight and after arriving in India. Moreover, the Delhi government has imposed additional restrictions on people coming from the UK to Delhi, every passenger irrespective of their test result will have to undergo seven day institutional quarantine in Delhi.

Meanwhile, India's Covid-19 tally increased to 1,05,43,659 with 15,151 new cases in past 24 hours, while the recoveries surged to 1,01,79,715 pushing the national recovery rate to 96.56 per cent.

Moreover, the death toll increased to 1,52,093  with 175 new fatalities in past 24 hours. The fatality rate of the country stands at 1.44 per cent.

The active caseload of the country stands at 2,11,033. The share of the active cases in the total cases has further shrunk to 2.00 per cent.

The improving figures come on the day when India begins the world largest vaccination drive on Saturday, Over 3 lakh healthcare workers to be inoculated on the first day of the much-anticipated drive against coronavirus. The vaccination drive has been planned in a phased manner, identifying priority groups.