With 14 more cases in India, the authorities said today morning that 20 patients have been infected with the mutant strain, which was first reported in the United Kingdom.
The patient, son of a senior official of the state Health Department, tested positive for the Variant of Concern 202012/01 (VOC-202012/01) mutant coronavirus strain after returning from London 10 days ago.
Scientists in the U.K. believe the variant is more contagious than previously identified strains. The vaccines being given now are thought to be effective against the variant, Colorado health officials said in a news release.
The person has been has been isolated in a separate room ta the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Chennai while his co-passengers and other contacts have been tested and found negative for COVID-19.
The authorities have initiated contact tracing of the patients and are placing them in isolation.
In a report published on Monday, the German national daily Die Welt said that researchers at Hannover Medical School detected the new variant in samples of an elderly patient who teted positive around November and later died.
Six UK returnees have been found positive for new UK variant genome, upon their arrival in India.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said as the two identified cases did not travel outside Canada, it is important to follow public health measures and limit contact with others, to reduce the transmission of the virus and any of its variants in communities.
Last week, Japan banned nonresident foreigners coming from Britain and South Africa after confirming the new variant in seven people over the last two days — five from Britain who tested positive at airports and two others in Tokyo.
The new strain of the virus, which "maybe up to 70 per cent more transmissible," has triggered travel restrictions on Britain and sounded a fresh alarm on Covid-19 which is known to have infected about 80 million people and caused over 1.7 million deaths worldwide.
France has partly reopened its borders to the UK following the snap 48-hour ban this week. The country is only allowing French citizens to return home, as well as to relieve the massive build-up of freight goods, but has instituted a testing policy.
According to official figures, the UK reported 744 fatalities on Wednesday, which increased the overall death toll to 69,157, reports Xinhua news agency.
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