India Records 20 New COVID Strain Cases, 8 In Delhi

Representative image; courtesy: The Times of India

New Delhi: As many as 14 fresh cases of the new mutant coronavirus strain have been registered in India, the government said on Wednesday morning. The new strain was first reported in the United Kingdom in September.

For the first time on Tuesday, six patients were found infected with the new strain in India, all of whom are either travellers or recently returned from the UK, reported NDTV. Experts say that the coronavirus’ mutated version detected in the UK and South Africa are significantly more transmissible than other known strains.

Delhi has recorded the most number of cases of the new virus strain (8), followed by Bengaluru (7) and the number is likely to increase in the coming days.

According to the government, a total of 33,000 passengers, who’ve come back from the UK in a month’s time, are being traced.

However, the existing COVID-19 vaccines will be effective against mutated strains, the Health Ministry said. “There is no evidence current vaccines will fail to protect against COVID-19 variants from the UK or South Africa,” government’s Principal Scientific Adviser, Professor K VijayRaghavan was quoted as saying by NDTV.

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