New Delhi, January 6: India's tally for the new strain of coronavirus touched 71 on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed. The government said that these 71 persons, who have been detected with the new 'more transmissible' UK coronavirus mutant strain, have been kept in physical isolation in health facilities by respective state governments. Meanwhile, their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. In the wake of the rising cases of the new COVID-19 strain, the government has started comprehensive contact tracing for co-travellers, family contacts and others. India to Resume Flight Services To And From United Kingdom From January 8, 2021; Only 15 Flights Allowed Per Week Till January 23.

The Health Ministry said that genome sequencing on other specimens is going on. It was on December 29, that a total of six UK returnees were found to be positive with the new variant genome. These were the first cases of the new COVID-19 strain to be reported in India. Globally, the new UK variant has already been reported by Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.  New Coronavirus Strain: India First in World to Successfully Culture and Isolate 'UK Variant' of COVID-19-Causing SARS-CoV-2 Virus.

In India, from November 25 to December 23, about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from UK. All these passengers are being tracked and subjected by States and UTs to RT-PCR tests. The COVID-19 tally in India touched 1,03,74,932 on Wednesday with 18,087 new cases in past 24 hours. The country reported 264 new deaths, taking the country's death tally to 1,50,114, the Health Ministry.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 06, 2021 12:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).