Total 150 Cases Of New Strain Of Coronavirus Have Been Detected In India

 The number of people who have tested positive for the UK variant of COVID-19 in India has risen to 150, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

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.

On Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the new variant of coronavirus that was detected in Britain may be deadlier than previously thought.

"There is some evidence that the new variant may be associated with a higher degree of mortality", Johnson said at a Downing Street news conference.

However, PM Johnson said that the current vaccines are still effective against the new variant.

India's Covid-19 tally increased to 1,06,39,684 with 14,256  new cases in past 24 hours, while the recoveries surged to 1,03,00,838  pushing the national recovery rate to 96.82  per cent.

Moreover, the death toll increased to 1,53,184 with 152 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 1,85,662. The share of the active cases in the total cases has further shrunk to 1.74 per cent.

Globally, more than 98.7 million people have been infected by the virus. The country continues to be second-most-affected globally, and ranks 13th among worst-hit nations by active cases.

A total of 15,37,190 beneficiaries have been vaccinated till 06:00 pm, 23rd January, 2021 & 27,776 vaccine sessions have been held Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. Today, vaccination sessions were organised in 27 States/UTs and upto 06:00 pm around 1,46,598 beneficiaries have been vaccinated.

#IndiaFightsCorona:

✅A total of 15,37,190 beneficiaries have been vaccinated till 06:00 pm, 23rd January, 2021 as per provisional reports.

✅No case of serious/ severe AEFI/ Deaths attributable to vaccination till date.

: @MoHFW_INDIA
#We4Vaccine #LargestVaccinationDrive pic.twitter.com/s8tSss4n2D

— #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) January 23, 2021

Total Hospitalizations till date is 11 .No case of serious/ severe AEFI/ Deaths attributable to vaccination till date said the Health Ministry

Meanwhile, India has started supplying Covid-19 vaccines to neighbouring countries. India is one of the world’s biggest drugmakers and has already sent consignments of coronavirus vaccines under grant assistance to several countries in South Asia.

Maldives and Bhutan were amongst the first nations to get vaccines from India. On January 20, India had sent 1,50,000 doses of Covisheild vaccine to Bhutan and 1,00,000 doses to the Maldives as grant assistance.

India officially handed over 2 million doses of coronavirus  vaccine to Bangladesh and one million doses to Nepal on January 21. The vaccines come at a crucial time for Bangladesh as the nation witnessed a rise in a number of coronavirus cases.

India also dispatched coronavirus vaccine to Myanmar and Seychelles on January 22. While a consignment of 1,00,000 doses of the Covishield vaccines were sent to Mauritius, a consignment of 50,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine were dispatched to Seychelles.

On January 22, India also began commercial exports and sent two million doses each to Brazil and Morocco.