A total of three persons have tested positive for the new UK variant of coronavirus in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district, an official said on Monday.
Three members of the same family - a husband, wife and their five-year-old child - have been found infected with UK strain in Hakmabad village of Sadulshahar in Sriganganagar.
The three had returned from the UK on December 18 and were found positive on December 28. Thereafter, their samples were sent to Delhi for further testing which confirmed the new mutated strain.
"Three persons have tested positive for the new UK variant of coronavirus. Their samples were sent to Delhi. All three have been shifted to the district hospital. Contact tracing and their sampling have been done. The area where they live has been sanitised," Hawaiian Singh, SDM Sriganganagar told ANI.
A total of 38 samples have been found to be positive with the new UK variant genome of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, confirmed the Health Ministry on Monday.
These persons have been kept in single room isolation in designated Health Care facilities by respective state governments and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine.
As per the experts, the new COVID-19 strain is more transmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 variants.
On January 2, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said India has successfully isolated and cultured the UK-variant of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease.
It is to mention that no other country has yet reported successful isolation and culture of the UK-variant of SARS-CoV-2, the ICMR informed.
Meanwhile, three more Delhi residents tested positive for the new coronavirus strain as a result of door-to-door medical check-up of people who recently arrived from the United Kingdom and those who came in their contact in the city, an official said on Monday.
With this, seven residents of the national capital have so far been found infected with the new coronavirus variant that has emerged in the UK.
At present, 51 people, including those who recently returned from the UK and their contacts, have so far tested positive for COVID-19 and all have been kept in a separate isolation facility at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP) Hospital.
(With agency inputs)
