New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry has confirmed that 14 more people in the country have been diagnosed with genetically modified coronavirus. With this, a total of 20 cases were reported. The previous day, six people had been diagnosed with the disease.
Delhi has the highest number of new cases. Seven people have been diagnosed with the disease in the country’s capital.
Six people from the UK were diagnosed with the disease yesterday. The virus has been confirmed in three people from Bengaluru, two from Hyderabad, and one from Pune. The first genetically modified virus was discovered in Britain. The new variant is 70 percent more likely to transmit than the current coronavirus.
“All six were transferred to isolations in their respective states, and those in close contact with them were transferred to quarantine, and comprehensive contact detection was initiated between travelers and family members, including genome sequencing,” the health ministry said.
The ministry said the situation was being closely monitored and the states were being instructed to send samples to the labs of the Indian SARS-Cov-2 Genomics (INSACOG) consortium for vigilance, containment, and testing.
From November 25 to December 23, 33,000 people arrived in India from the UK. “So far only 114 people have been found to be positive. These samples have been sent to 10 INSACOG labs for genome sequencing,” the government said.