India logs 2.59 lakh fresh Covid cases, 1,761 deaths in 24 hours
The country’s total caseload now stands at 1,53,21,089 with 20,31,977 active Covid-19 cases. This is the sixth straight day that the country has recorded over 2 lakh cases.
India, on Wednesday, has reported 14 cases of the new coronavirus strain that emerged in the United Kingdom, taking the total number of the new mutant strain Covid-19 cases to 20, according to government data.
On Tuesday, the government had reported the first six cases of the new strain of Covid-19. Out of the 20 cases, the Ministry of Health said that eight samples tested positive from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Delhi, seven at National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences Hospital (NIMHANS) Bengaluru, two from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Hyderabad, one each from National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani near Kolkata, National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune, and Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi.
The Health Ministry, on Tuesday, said that genome sequencing will be conducted on all the international passengers who were symptomatic and tested positive for coronavirus and have arrived in India in the last 14 days, between December 9 and 22.
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Dr VK Paul, a member of Niti Aayog at the Health Ministry briefing said, “It is easy to suppress the virus in the starting. Once the transmission is too widespread, it is hard to control.”
The doctors have said that there is no evidence that the new strain leads to more fatalities or that it cannot be controlled by existing vaccines but its contagious nature puts more people at risk, especially the vulnerable sections of the population.
The government has said that the situation is ‘under careful watch.’
The samples of the new strain of Covid-19 are currently being tested at the labs of INSACOG. The government plans to carry out the genome sequencing at 10 laboratories across the country eventually. The labs include NIBMG Kolkata, ILS Bhubaneswar, NIV Pune, CCS Pune, CCMB Hyderabad, CDFD Hyderabad, InSTEM Bengaluru, NIMHANS Bengaluru, IGIB Delhi, and NCDC Delhi.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, on Tuesday, said that the government foresees “a short extension” of the suspension of flights from the United Kingdom beyond December 31 due to the fast spreading new mutant strain of coronavirus found in the UK.
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